Acheron
by Auntie Shara
Summary: Edd and Kevin get new jobs and have to relocate far from home, 39 light years away from home, Now that the colony is being over run, the fun has only just begun. I do not own EENE or anything in the Alien franchise, Alpha's Kevedd, OC's belong to-Angela is Dshell99's, Sylina is Sybrann's, Nat is C2ndy2c1d's.
1. Chapter 1

Acheron Chapter 1 – Zeta II Reticuli

 **A/N- Hello Darlings, as I promised, here is a brand new DARK fic from your Auntie Shara. DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER, if you do not like the fact that no one is safe in these types of fics that I write please turn back now, but you're in the right place if you like me enjoy the suspense of not know whether or not the leading men will survive. So pull up a chair and join me as we journey together down this rabbit hole hand in hand. Zeta II Reticuli is a binary star system 39 light years away from earth.**

Edd stood at the altar with a swarm of butterflies in his stomach looking into the loveliest pair of green eyes he has ever seen as the Priest addressed the congregation of friends and family that had joined them this day to celebrate their union. Edd smiles broadly as his heart is filled with joy, Kevin returns it with a warm smile of his own which shows off those cute dimples of his, he bites his bottom lip and looks down at their joined hands, caressing the back of Edd's with his thumb. As the Priest recites the standard marriage vows to Kevin, memories of the day he proposed floods Edd's mind, the worried look upon his face as he got down on one knee and opened the little velvet box which contained his engagement ring. A beautiful ring which now sits proudly upon his finger ready to be joined by another, Edd never imagined that he could be any happier then that day when Kevin slid that ring in place. That is until Kevin said those two little words, "I do," and Edd's heart overflowed with happiness, his eyes filling with tears of joy, and that beautiful smile of his which would not leave is face.

He was so overjoyed and enraptured with Kevin's smiling face and happy eyes that he didn't pay attention to what the Priest was saying to him, Kevin having to bring him back to reality with a gentle squeeze of the hands and a tilt of his head in the Priest direction, "Oh yes, I'm sorry, I do." The Priest began the ring exchange and Edd's heart nearly stopped as Kevin placed his wedding ring upon his finger right beside his engagement ring, he couldn't stop a tear from falling as he looked at the two rings side by side. "I know pronounce you joined in marriage, you may now kiss your husband," and Kevin takes Edd in his arms and with ballroom dancing finesse dips him low and joins their lips together in a very passionate chaste kiss.

Memories played through Edd's head of the two of them buying a house together and Kevin carrying him across the threshold jokingly like a sack of potatoes while smacking his ass a few times, their first anniversary together as Kevin presented him with a snow white Jack Russell Terrier puppy that they named Kipper. A romantic dinner for two picnic style upon a blanket as they gazed at the stars, their second anniversary that had Kevin coming home from work with a dozen roses, and the sweet love that they made upon their bed as their desert. Then there was their third anniversary, sitting at the dining room table they were having a candle light dinner together, "I miss you babe," Kevin reaches across the table for Edd's hand, "And I love you," but his fingers go through Edd's. One of the down falls of holographic images, they have no physical form, and thus no real contact can be shared between the two at this time. But it did allow them to spend this day together better than any video call could ever do.

"I love you too Kevin, but it's only a few more months till I ship out to join you," Edd said with a tear in his eye. Kevin instinctively reaches up to wipe the falling tear away but with no effect, Edd still appreciated the gesture none the less.

"Yeah, but it's a shame you'll miss our four year anniversary while in hypersleep."

His memory shifts back to a week after their second anniversary, as he sat in a sterile looking reception area for the corporation they both worked for. Edd was staring off into the distance not really seeing the company's logo upon the wall he was looking at, a big fat yellow W with a grey Y positioned behind it. Kevin walks up and sits next to him with papers clutched in his hand, jarring his husband back into reality, Edd looks in his direction blankly and blinks away the thoughts that have been going through his mind. "So," Edd asks curiously.

"I got the promotion, babe," Looking down at the stack of papers in Edd's lap Kevin knew he got the job as well but still wanted to hear the words, "And you?"

"I got the job," Edd says a little less enthusiastically then Kevin thought he should have.

"That's great Edd, now we can go …"

"When do you ship out?" Edd said flatly, he wasn't trying to be hurtful, he was just trying his best to stop from crying.

"Next month," Kevin was a little bit worried now, there was something off about the way Edd was acting.

"I don't ship out for another fourteen months," Edd's heart was aching, he didn't want to be separated from Kevin for this long but unfortunately the job required it of him.

"What, why?" Kevin was in shock, they were under the impression that both the positions they applied for were needed immediately.

"I have to stay here and prepare for phase two of the terraforming operation," Edd counted off what he had to do on his fingers as he spoke, "Build up a team that will be coming with me, do research and calculations to ensure that we can and will meet our deadlines, form a list of supplies that we will need for the job, and lastly."

"Yeah," Kevin said with a little pain in his voice as he saw the hurt in Edd's eyes.

He turns his whole body to face Kevin and cups his face in his hands, "Miss you," he brings their foreheads together as a tear falls down his cheek.

Kevin places his ruff hands upon the back of his neck and caressing Edd's ears with his thumbs, "I'll miss you too babe." The nights of passion that followed were short lived as they poured as much love into the other as they could in preparation of their separation, and sweet promises of their joyful reunion to come were exchanged as they cuddled in the afterglow. Kevin had been promoted to oversee the refit of a terraforming plate on the distant moon of Acheron, and after the refit was complete he would stay on permanently as the head of their engineering team. Edd had been assigned to lead the second phase of the terraforming project, it would introduction different forms of plant life upon the planet with later phases introducing animal life.

On the bridge of the USCSS Argo all was quiet, the control stations that would normally display an array of information were all powered down, with no one awake to see what would be provided by the screens there was no need to waste the energy on keeping them active. The computer system was none the less doing trillions of calculations a second, keeping track of the ships coordinates in space, as well as scanning for any space debris and adjusting course as needed to avoid it and also monitoring all the ships functions which included the sixteen hypersleep chambers that housed its most precious of cargos.

Reaching the red line of their voyage the computer cuts forward thrust and engages the reverse engines to begin its deceleration. It also began to bring other systems back online, life support, artificial gravity, and control panels come back to life after their ten month dormancy, prepping the ship to receive its crew fresh out of hypersleep. As the air was freshly circulated the hypersleep chambers begin the thawing process, checking and triple checking that all life within the pods were safe during this procedure, for if the temperature was elevated to quickly there could be serious damage done to the occupant.

Thirty minutes later and the lids of the hypersleep chambers raise, Edd blinks a few times as his mind starts to wake up, his body felt like crap after being kept in stasis for so long. Slowly he sits up and fights the urge to empty the contents of his stomach all over the floor, as if there was anything in there to purge in the first place. After assuring himself that he wasn't going to wretch he swings his legs over the edge of the pod and rolls his neck a few times to work out the kinks in it, groaning softly as his neck popped a few times. With blurry eyes he looks at the monitor to his right that was attached to the wall next to his hypersleep chamber, it was currently displaying highlights of the dreams he had during his sleep, asking him if he wanted to save them for future viewing. Hitting the yes button it downloads the files and releases the storage device from its port a moment later then displays that he had a new message waiting to be viewed. Hitting the blinking button on the screen the image quickly changes to a smiling Kevin, "Happy anniversary babe," he kisses his hand and motions toward the screen with it, "Well I guess it's about another month till you get here, I really can't wait to see you, I've got some champagne stashed away for when you get here and I'm going to cook you up the best damn dinner you've ever had. I love you and I miss you," He pauses to let out a sigh as he rubs the back of his neck, "I'll see ya in a month." Kevin leans forward and hits the stop button and the screen goes black

Edd smiles to himself for a few moments then stands and heads to the shower to brush and was ten months of funk from his skin and teeth, though the scientist who invented the chambers swore that all organic growth slowed to nearly a standstill while in the chamber, he still felt dirty. Washed, brushed and dressed he heads to the mess hall to grab a bite to eat, cornbread, beans and spam, ah the life of space travel, what a wonderful thing. At least when he hit planet side he was in for a decent meal, and a long awaited reunion with the other half of his heart. Sitting down at a table he dips his cornbread into his beans, lapping up the juices to soften it up before taking a bit or the tough bread. After swallowing the nutritionally sound but barely eatable food he takes a drink and looks across the table at the captain of the ship. The man was in his late thirties of African descent, a light speckling of grey in his well trimmed beard, his attire was a very casual dress down look of jeans, T-shirt and a flight jacket, but why not, this ship was him home after all. "Captain Monroe," the man turns away from the conversation he was having with his crew and toward Edd, "How long till we land?"

The man responded politely though there was a hint of irritation in his voice, as though he wanted to say we'll get there when we get there, "Well my good doctor, we should be in orbit of Calpamos within the hour, another twenty minutes to catch up to Acheron and then there's the thirty minute flight time after that so roughly another two hours before you're rid of me."

"Thank you Captain, I appreciate the information." Edd quickly finishes his meal and now with a little bit of food on his stomach to help settle it down, he gets up and puts his tray in the return bin to be cleaned. Walking out of the mess hall he locates a terminal and takes a seat, inserting a card into the slot under the small screen it starts the call. Hearing a tone go off several times before the automated message played "We're sorry but "Kevin Vincent-Barr" is not available, please leave a message after the tone." A soft tone was heard a moment later and Edd begins his message by waving at the camera, "Hey Kev, I guess you're at work now," Edd was a ball of nerves right now, they have been away from each other for so long, "I am obviously letting you know that we are about to enter orbit and I should be making landfall within two hours, I love you and I'll see you soon." Hanging up, he exits the terminal and heads off to busy himself to keep his mind from wondering. For Edd their time apart has been ten months worth of silence then three months worth of holodates, for Kevin it was three months worth of holodates and then ten months worth of silence, a very trying time for any relationship.

But before Edd knew it though the Captain was making an announcement, "All hands prepare for our decent to Acheron, please find the closest flight chair and strap yourselves in."

Edd rushed to the bridge to strap into one of the observation chairs along the back wall which were provided by the company for passengers who wanted to see a flight crew in action. The helmsman calls out to the captain, "Now in orbit of LV426 sir."

"Alright, let's put her to bed people," Flipping a few switches upon his control panel he then continues, "Thompson, being the approach."

"Aye sir."

"Ten degree down angle," The first officer called out and the helmsman confirmed the order.

A few minutes later he called out another order, "Forty degree starboard roll," the helmsman once again confirmed the order.

The communications officer was busy hailing the colony to advise them of their approach, "This is cargo vessel Argo identification number 89301585 calling colony control do you read over."

"Ruff winds ahead sir,' the science officer called out.

The captain flipped a switch opening the intercom system, "Alright everyone hang on tight, it's going to get a little rough." Hitting the ionosphere the ship rocked slightly as it began to hit the gases that formed the atmosphere, and it began to lurch even harder as they continued their decent, this lasted only a few minutes until they made it past the cloud line and the winds subsided.

"I'm locked onto their beacon sir and we are making our approach," the helmsman notified him.

Flipping the switch again he announces in a very serious yet corny voice, "This is your captain speaking, we will be landing at Hadley's Hope shortly, please make sure all your tray tables are in their upright and locked positions, I thank you for choosing Argo air for all your travel needs and hope that you will enjoy your stay on the beautiful moon drenched shores of Acheron."

Five minutes later and the massive ship gently touches down on the main landing pad of the colony, steam bellowing from several exhaust ports, and a low mechanical whine begins as the loading ramp lowers to allow the colonist to off load the supplies being shipped. With a duffle bag strapped to his back a suite case in his left hand and a dog carrier in his right, Edd slowly walks down the ramp and to his new home. He looked around nervously searching for a familiar baseball cap, wondering if Kevin had received his message before they arrived. Kipper barks as he notices him before his master does, "Edd," he looks in the direction his name was called and his face nearly broke as a smile worked its way across it going from ear to ear.

Running as fast as he could without dropping his baggage, for Kipper would never forgive him if he did drop him, he makes his way over to the red head and stops a few steps from him, "Hey you." He puts down the dog carrier and lets go of the suite case as Kevin sweeps in and wraps his arms around him, picking him up and spinning him a few times before placing him gently back on the ground and kissing him passionately.

He brushes the tear from Edd's cheek with his thumb as he cupped his loves face, "Welcome home."

 **A/N- I know some of you are catching on to the hints I am dropping, but please don't spoil it for others, I want it to be a surprise, a nice big surprise. Let me know what you think with a comment, and I hope to be scaring you soon.**


	2. Hope at Hadley's

Acheron Chapter 2 – Hope at Hadley's

 **A/N- The Atmosphere Processing Plant (APP) is what is keeping Acheron's air breathable at the moment, it stands 1,500 meters tall with several sub-levels underground. It is powered by a 1.0 Terawatt fusion reactor and is fully automated, the colony was established to maintain the reactor until faze two could be completed and the ecosystem begins to maintain the atmosphere. PDT is a Personal Data Transmitter, useful in so many ways, from unlocking doors to logging into consoles. And as always please give me a minute to set the stage before hellfire and brim stone start to rain down.**

Kevin's heart was beating a million miles a second as he walked down the passageway carrying Edd's luggage to their quarters in the colony, he felt more nervous and excited now then he did on their first date, the old saying held true absents does make the heart grow fonder. After receiving Edd's message that he was in orbit and about to make landfall, he cleared his schedule for the day, leaving the plants maintenance in the hands of his subordinate. As they traversed the metal passageway he gave Edd a make shift tour pointing out things of note as they passed, "Down that passage is the Med and Science labs, where your office will be," stopping at the junction he points down the adjoining passageway.

Edd just shook his head with a smile on his face, he was familiar with the layout of the facility, having study the schematics thoroughly. "That's nice Kev," Kevin's heart warmed at the nickname that was spoken as Edd moved closer, "But there is only one place right now that I am interested in knowing it's currently location," Kevin cocked a brow as Edd leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Our bed." A playful smile was on Edd's face as he leaned back just a little to look his husband in the eyes.

Kevin's face lit up and Kipper who was in Edd's arms reached up and licked him on the cheek, "Right this way monsieur," and Kevin headed down the corridor again but this time at a double time pace. After being apart for over a year the both of them were looking forward to reconnect on so many levels, eager to reaffirm their love and need for one another in a way that only they could do for each other. Kevin stops in front of a door that looked like all the others down this passage, and as he neared it the lock was automatically released as it recognized his PDT, "This way, you're bridal suite awaits," Kevin swings the door open and holds out his arm dramatically beckoning Edd to enter first.

Stepping through the modest doorway Edd's breath catches and he releases Kipper to the floor, he was prepared for cramped living due to the nature of colony life, but he had to admit that these quarters where bigger than he had expected. Kevin enters behind him carrying the luggage and closes the door with his foot, taking them into a room off to the right that Edd suspected was the bedroom, opening the door just to his right he finds the small closet and sets kippers carrier inside so it was out of the way, closing the door again he begins to survey his new home. Entering the quarters you are immediately in the living room area, the very modest sized sixty inch television was built right into the left wall, a coffee table, couch with an end table placed on either side was positioned a few feet away from it facing the TV, partitioning the area from the entryway giving the feel of a hallway. On the far side of the room was the kitchen area with all the modern appliances installed, a countertop islander with stools was built extending from the right hand wall to separate the areas and give you counter space. On the left hand side of the far wall was an L shaped bench dinning nook with a small oval shaped window above it that allowed you a view of the outside world.

The next door you come to on the right was the bathroom, it was decent sized for the space with only a stand up shower installed, god was he going to miss soaking in a tube. And finally the last door on the right which led to their small bedroom, all the shelves and drawers used for storage were built into the wall to save on space. The only true pieces of furniture in the room were the queen sized bed which stood on the far wall from the door and the two nightstands on either side, a large oval shaped window on the left wall giving a view of the barren landscape. Leaning against the door frame Edd took in the view of Kevin's beautiful frame as he extended his arm to put the clothes that were on hangers in the closet, Edd's other two suitcases sat on the floor at the foot of the bed unopened yet. Pushing off the wall he walks over to his husband and wraps his arms around him, squeezing him tight around the chest line kissing his neck, "What are you doing," Edd whispered into his ear before he took the lob into his mouth to nibble it.

Kevin moaned softly enjoying the touch of his love, "Just helping you to relax," he turned in Edd's arms to face him, wrapping his arms around Edd's neck, "I know you won't be able to until this is done."

Their lips join and they both now felt like this was home, content in the warmth of the others embrace, "I've trained you well," Edd smirked as he looked into those loving green eyes, Kevin returned the smile and hummed is accent as he kissed those sweet lips again. Guiding Edd to sit on the bed as their lips stayed joined he helped him to lie down, positioning himself above him, their groins rubbing together as he moved his hips. Edd's left hand eased its way down Kevin's back to tease at the waist line of his pants, sliding in to massage that perfect ass while his right hand was running through Kevin's hair. Kevin supported himself with his right elbow as his left hand caressed Edd's check with his thumb while he poured all his love for his husband into that kiss.

They feel the bed rock slightly as the weight of Kipper lands on the mattress to join them, they break the kiss and look in his direction, he hops up and lands his two front paws on Kevin's left shoulder and begins to lick him on the cheek. "I've missed you too buddy," Kevin says as he shifted his weight to bring his left arm around to pet the smaller member of their family, Kippers tail wagged excitedly as he continued to show Kevin affection, "Yes I love you too, but daddy needs some alone time with Papa." Kipper understood what he meant and backed off just a little, turning around to the edge of the bed looking at the floor for a moment then turning back to them laying down giving them both a sad look, "Go on buddy, we'll be out in a little while." He stands again letting out a quick breath of air then a whine, jumping down to the floor he leaves the room to go sleep on the couch.

"He has missed you as much as I have, wouldn't leave the front door for anything for the first two weeks after you left," Edd stated as he caressed Kevin's arm with his right hand stopping to play with the hem of his short sleeve.

Kevin brushed the bangs away from Edd's forehead, "I missed the both of you as well," a tender kiss, "Especially you," another kiss that fanned the flames of their love. Clothes were shed, hips were rolled and worlds were rocked, words of love and devotion were shared between them and their bonds were renewed. Laying cuddled together in their post coital bliss Kevin kisses Edd on the forehead and then breaths out, "Damn." Edd hums his curiosity at the exclamation as he enjoyed the embrace of those strong protective arms, "I promised you dinner."

"The best damn dinner I ever had I believe were your words," he traced the fingers of his right hand across the muscles of Kevin's chest, "So what are we having, since I've already had my dessert."

"Hmmm," Kevin thought about what he could whip up quickly from what they had in the fridge, "How does meatloaf, asparagus and mashed potatoes sound to you."

"Perfect," Edd cooed.

Untangling himself from his husband Kevin begins to get up, "Ok, I'll go get dinner started and you jump in the shower," smacking Edd playfully on the ass.

As he stood up Edd grabs his wrist and pulls him back down kissing him deeply, "Why don't you wash my back for me first?" Kevin gives him his trade mark smirk and lustful eyes and Edd jumps out of the bed running for the shower closely followed by Kevin. Dinner as it was, was enjoyed two hours later as they cuddled up on the couch to watch a movie from the colonies data base, the classic B grade horror movie Waxworks. Little did they realize though that their whole evening of love making was overheard by their neighbor through the air ducts, she was currently sitting on the floor with her back against the wall taking another long swig off a bottle of vodka. Finding no comfort from it she throws it against the wall shattering it, spilling the contents all over the floor and wall, how dare that dork take what she believed was rightfully hers.


	3. Small Town

Acheron Chapter 3 – Small Town

 **A/N- Hadley's Hope is the name of the colony established to maintain the Atmosphere Processing Plant (APP) on Acheron, with a population of 158 colonists until Edd arrived with his team. Princess belongs to Dshell99 Sy belongs to Sybrann**

Edd woke up the next morning to the smell of bacon and coffee, and the sound of the mug being placed on his bedside table. Kevin sits upon the bed so his back was touching Edd's stomach as he lay on his side, leaning over he kisses him on the cheek and whispers in his ear, "Wake up sleepy head."

Edd stretches and rolls over on his back, Kevin's free hand caresses the cheek he had just kissed then comes to rest upon his chest, Edd asks sleepily, "What time is it?"

"A little past eight," He hands him the plate that had his breakfast on it, "This is so unlike you."

"I must still be groggy from the hypersleep," sitting up he begins to eat his meal and looks up at Kevin as he picked up his coffee, "What?"

Kevin had been looking at him affectionately as he devoured his meal, "Just that you're so handsome," he wipes a little yolk off of the side of Edd's lip with his thumb then sucks it off.

"Flattery will get you everywhere, Pumpkin," Edd looks at him with sultry eyes as he took a sip of his coffee and waged his eye brows, using his free hand he slides it up Kevin's thigh toward his groin.

"As tempting as that offer is," Edd grabs a hold and begins to stroke it through the thin fabric of his pajama bottoms and Kevin's mind shorts out a little, "I've umm, got to introduce you to some people."

Edd puts his cup down and moves the plate off his lap, "They're not going anywhere," getting out from under the covers he straddles Kevin's lap and nibbles upon his ear lob, "We've got time."

"You're so naughty," Kevin breathed out as Edd sucked upon a sensitive spot on his neck.

"No just horny," he brought their lips together so Kevin would get the point to just shut up and fuck him already. An hour later they were dressed and saying their farewells to Kipper, hoping he wouldn't get anxious being left alone in a new environment and thus act out.

Making their way down the corridor they climb the nearest stairwell to the second floor and continue towards operations. Passing the med lab on the right and Edd's offices which were on the left they enter the sizable room that was the control center for the colony. From here they monitored the APP and the colony as a whole, passing along maintenance orders to Kevin's department as they were needed. Taking a sharp left once in the room they climbed the four steps to the raised platform and enter an office on their left, "Major Hadley, I would like to introduce you to my husband Eddward."

The man stands up and walks around his desk extending a hand to Edd, "A pleasure to make your acquaintance Dr. Vincent-Barr."

Edd takes the hand firmly and shakes it, "Likewise Major."

"If you need anything at all just let me know, my people are at your disposal," The man sits on the corner of his desk as he looks Edd in the eyes, apparently sizing him up.

"That's good to hear Major, I look forward to working with you and your people," as Edd finished there was a knock on the door.

A young blond hair woman enters after the Major beckons her with his hand, "Sir we have orders coming down from the company," Edd and Kevin made way for her to pass so she could hand the papers over to him.

"Thank you Sarah," He takes them from her and then turns his attention back to the both of them, "If you'll excuse me gentleman, urgent matters to attend to." He extends his hand again, "It was nice to meet you sir, enjoy your day off with your husband, and I'll see you bright and early tomorrow to go over your schedule for phase two."

They both said their farewells and leave the office heading toward the exit, "He seems rather busy for such a small colony."

"Still a lot of things to delegate and accomplish regardless of its size," Kevin replies as they reach the door.

And as they exit the room they could hear Major Hadley speaking rather loud as he exits his office, "Who does this Burke think he is, like I have the man power for a survey that size." As the door closed they paid the outburst no mind, figuring it was some unreasonable demand from some pencil pusher in a cushy office.

Heading back the way they came, they took a left and crossed an enclosed suspended bridge that connected the north module to the southern one. Taking another left and descending another set of stairs to the ground floor they passed a small casino, "Hey shovelchin," Kevin looks back at the shorter man who owned the establishment, "We got a high stakes game going, you want in on this?"

"No thanks Skipper, I'll pass," Kevin was not so frivolous with his money as to get mixed up with that scam artist.

"Well if you change your mind, we'll keep a seat warm for you." All Eddy saw when it came to Kevin was dollar signs, the red head is one of the top salary men in the colony, right under the Major. So in the short mans opinion he was a goldmine ready to be plundered, and if his sources were to be believed his husband was just as well paid.

Continuing a little further down the corridor they enter the garage that had several ATV's lined along both walls and a supply depot along the back wall. Walking up to the counter Kevin leans over it and yells, "Hey Ang."

An African American woman in her mid twenties with a curly afro hairstyle wearing a brown jump suit comes walking around the shelving unit. "Boy what are you doing yelling at me," she points to the counter, "Do you not see the bell."

Kevin stammers out, "Yeah but I was just…."

"The bell, do you not see it," she says punctuating each word as she makes a motion with her hand as though she was hitting the top of the bell that sat on the counter. Kevin opens his mouth again and she hums out a negative response while admonishing him with her finger, Edd just snickers at the interaction between the two of them, it was like a mother scolding her child. Finally Edd rings the bell just for humor sack and she motions toward him and says, "Thank you, so how can I help you sir?"

She heads over to Edd completely ignoring Kevin now, "But Ang."

"Manners, can't you see that I'm with a customer," She holds the straight face for a few more seconds before cracking up at the one Kevin was giving her. "Now Kev, come here, I'm just messing with you," she props herself on the counter and wraps an arm around his neck, "So what brings you around here."

"Just showing my husband around," Kevin motions toward Edd with his right hand.

"You mean parading him around," she smacks him on the left shoulder.

"Of course, have to make the lot of you jealous by showing off my fine ass man"

Removing her arm from around Kevin she extends it toward Edd, "I'm Ang but most call me Princess." Turning her head toward the open garage she yells out, "Sy."

From under one of the ATV's a blond haired woman rolls out, peeking her head from behind the wheel and hollers back, "What woman?"

"Kevin's brought his man for a visit, so get your ass over here and introduce yourself," She turns her gaze back to Edd as the blond extracted herself from under the vehicle.

"So why do they call you princess," Edd asked.

"I'm the princess of procurement around here," gesturing with her hand in the universal sign for money, "They pay tribute and they get what they need."

"Oh so you run the black-market around here."

"More or less," Ang replies then motions toward Sy who had just joined them, "And this stunning vixen is our mechanic Sylina."

She gave Edd a nod, "Hey."

"If you need something fixed around here she's the gal to talk to," And ignored the look Kevin just gave her.

"And what am I, chopped liver?" Kevin's expression was one of exasperation, he thought his men did a fine job keeping the place running smoothly.

"If you want to wait a month for Kevin's team to get around to it, then I suppose you can ask him." She gave the man a side glance and a wicked grin as she saw her teasing was pushing the right buttons.

As those two bickered about maintenance schedules along with having to wait ungodly amounts of time for parts to arrive, Edd leans over to Sy and asks, "Do those two always pick on each other like this?"

"If Ang doesn't like you, she won't pick on you," Sy replied matter-of-factly, "It'll be straight to business then done."

"Don't worry Edd, I already like you," Ang smiles broadly, "Kevin has told me so much about you that I feel we're practically family."

"Speaking of Families," Sy said looking over at the group of people who were headed their direction from the entrance. Two young children, one boy and one girl both of whom had blond hair, which they seemed to have gotten from their mother who was standing with them at one of the ATV's.

The father comes over to the counter and pushes his way right to the front, "Hey Ang, I'm taking number four out for a couple of days."

"Where ya headed Mr. Jorden," she asks as she hands him the clipboard.

"Just got to do a little survey out past the alien range," Signing the last form he picks up the keys from where Ang had laid them and walks off, "Don't worry I'll bring her back in one piece."

"There better not be a scratch on her," Sy calls after him, to which the man just waved back to her nonchalantly.

Loading up his family he turns the ignition of the ATV and heads toward the door which was now opening for him, the wind was howling outside kicking up dust and debris into the air obscuring the view. But Edd could still see the giant ringed planet of Calpamos taking up most of the sky along with the other two satellites which hung low on the horizon, the view was beautiful to see, and was something that Edd has always longed to see, an alien worlds sky.

 **A/N- Just so we know the colony is still under a supply run kind of situation, seeing how there is no real life on the planet so no other way to get food. Hence Princess and her side business, everyone wants more than just rations now don't they.**


	4. Stalker

Acheron Chapter 4 – Stalker

 **A/n- Just so everyone is aware this story takes place in the year 2179, Hadley's Hope has been up and running for almost 20 years with no issues thus far.**

The day started as planned, Kevin was up and out the door to start his work day by five in the morning, meeting up with Nat and Big Ed for an early breakfast at the bar and grill so Edd could have the extra sleep. Edd woke up an hour later after his husband had left, to get ready and be off to work by seven so he could make his meeting with Major Hadley that morning. It was all very technical, filled with scientific lingo that the Major had trouble following at some points and at one moment almost put the man to sleep, blaming the hour more than the presentation he trudged through it and put his stamp of approval upon the project. Not like Major Hadley could scrap his project anyways, the company had already given it the green light not to mention the amount of money they had already put into it, this meeting was more of a formality than anything else, allowing the man to feel important and in control of his little corner of the universe.

Leaving the meeting with further reassurances that he would have the full support of the Major and all the resources that was at his disposal. Edd enters his lab across the hall from the operations center to direct his team as they organized the space they would be occupying for the foreseeable future. The day was mainly spent unpacking equipment, arranging it neatly within the cramped space so there was freedom of movement along with accessibility. Sending his people to lunch around one, he stayed in his office to review the inventory manifest while he ate his meal, occasionally looking out the window only to see the usual wind storm blowing up dust and debris into the air. Half way through his plate of food he hears the outer door to the lab open and close and someone walk into his personal office and stop at the door. "Charlotte, I'm going to need you and Mitchell to go down to Module B and visually check our inventory," Edd calls out to the individual at the door.

Turning in his chair he looks the direction of the door since the person there had not moved yet or acknowledged what he had said, but Charlotte was not standing in the doorway. Instead of his assistant stood another woman, roughly around five foot nine to six feet in height with wavy brown hair and dirt of her face, her uniform was that of the maintenance crew which would explain her disheveled appearance. Placing his tablet upon his desk his expression turns to one of curiosity, "Is there something I can help you with Ms.?"

"Reeves," She leans against the doorframe and looks at Edd intently as though she was taking his measure.

"Did Kevin send you here for something?" Maybe his husband needed some information on the resources he would need to commit to the project, so he could plan accordingly, but if that was the case why didn't he just call, Edd could have easily sent him a digital copy.

"No, Kev didn't send me," she casually takes a step into the room and Edd could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, "Just came down to welcome you to town."

Standing Edd motions toward the door, "That's nice Ms. Reeves but if we could possibly do this some…."

She cuts him off and steps between him and the door, "Kev's a really good guy, don't you think?"

Something about her set him on edge, it wasn't her stance or posture they both seemed casual enough to him, he could even over look her rude nature. If he had to explain it he would say it was the aura that surrounded her, it seemed to breathe ill intent aimed in his direction, "Yes my husband…"

She cut him off again, "You know we are all like family out here, looking after one another," she walks over to his desk and runs her finger along the edge of its glass top. "For if we don't, who will right, the people on earth? It would take them almost a year to get out here, so how can they, I mean by the time they get here a lot could have changed." She begins to play with a snow globe that Kevin had gotten him, "A child could be born in that time, a marriage ruined, lives altered permanently, love lost and gained, with just a simple tip of the scales." She places the globe back down on the edge of the desk and it falls to the floor and shatters, "Ops."

Edd flinched as the globe made impact with the ground, she didn't scare him just unnerved him as though his primal side was telling him to be careful of her. "Well, Ms. Reeves it has been a pleasure making your acquaintance, but I am very busy here as you can imagine and must be getting back to work," the door in the outer room opens and Charlotte returns from her lunch, "Maybe we can do this some other time."

She walks out of the office slowly and toward the exit, "Yeah, let's do that."

Once the door closes behind her Edd walks over to the edge of his desk and begins to clean up the mess that had been his birthday present, "Charlotte."

The short middle aged lady walks into the office stopping at the door, "Yes Mr. Vincent-Barr?" Seeing what the man was cleaning up she comes over and begins to assist him, "What a shame, it was such a lovely piece."

"Yes a shame," dumping the remains of the antique into the trash he stands, "Charlotte can you discreetly get me the information on a Ms. Reeves please?"

"Yes sir, but may I ask why?"

"Just acquainting myself with our neighbors, nothing to important really but please do it as quickly as possible." His assistant didn't ask any more questions on the subject and did what was requested of her, and within the hour she sent the information to his tablet for review. Looking over the file Edd saw nothing of note on the lady that made his nerves tingle, Ms Bethany Reeves age nineteen Caucasian female height five eleven hair brown eyes brown, no criminal record, nor was she very academically noteworthy. She was born and raised on Acheron and had lived here all her life, her parents were one of the original colonist that had built this place, and it seems trained her to work here as well, being certified for the maintenance team threw online schooling and testing. But when her parents decided to move back to earth a few years back she had chosen to stay, it was her home after all. So her statement earlier about everyone here being family was more likely the way she truly felt, and to her Edd was an outsider encroaching on that, and like a jealous child she was lashing out. But something in his gut told him there was more to it than that, then all her attempted subtle remarks made since, "Oh how cute, she has a crush on Kevin."

Edd had no fear of Kevin cheating on him what so ever, they have been in a relationship for seven years now and not once has he ever shown any interest in another person, even when they practically threw themselves at him. As a matter of fact at the beginning he had to stop Edd from cutting a bitch or two for blatantly flirting with Kevin in front of him, to which the red head had thought Edd's jealousy was adorable at the time. But now he knew that all he had to do was wait her out, that all her attempts were a futile effort that will never come to fruition. Brushing this whole thing off as a misguided youthful crush Edd closes the file on her both figuratively and literally and returns to his work finishing his day some five hours later. Bidding farewell to his team he leaves his offices and begins his walk home, passing the Major and another officer in the hall as they were admonishing a few kids for playing in the office area. He felt sorry for the kids for there was probably so little in the way of space to be a kid in this colony, but at the same time he could understand the men's concern for a maintenance crew was welding only a few feet away from them, Ms. Reeves and a taller man were doing the repair work.

Arriving home he is welcomed by Kipper jumping up to greet him and the smell of baking lasagna and garlic bread coming from the kitchen. Sitting the few things he brought home from work down on the coffee table he walks into the kitchen to set the table, receiving a kiss on the cheek as he opened the cabinet, "Welcome home babe."

The stubble of Kevin's five o'clock shadow felt rough against his skin, "Hey there handsome."

"How was work?"

"You know, just getting everything set up right now so we haven't gotten to the fun stuff yet, all in all it was pretty mundane today."

"I'm sorry to hear that," the timer goes off and Kevin pulls their meal from the oven, "I'm sure you'll have a lot more fun once you start playing with your toys."

"Yes I'm sure I will," the rest of the evening was enjoyable, Kevin went into great detail on some of the shenanigans his new friends got into this day, both Nat and Big Ed, as they called him, seemed to be quit the pair. Edd made a personal note to himself to go meet Kevin's crew of misfits the next chance he got, for he would be working alongside them shortly and needed to pick a few good people to assist his team. Dinner finished and their mess cleaned up they spent the remainder of their evening cuddled up on the couch watching a movie until it was time for bed. Falling asleep with Kevin's head on his chest and Kipper resting at his feet, these tiny quarters on this tiny plant was slowly starting to truly feel like home to Eddward, and that's all he really needed.

Kevin and Edd were awoken a few hours later by a video call, rolling over and hitting the button on the screen Nat's face appeared, "Hello," Kevin groggily greeted him.

"Hey boss sorry to waking you," Nat was trying to keep his voice down so he didn't wake up Edd, "But we got an order to go out on a search and rescue, apparently the Jorden family needs some help."

Kevin wiped the sleep from his eyes and sits up, "Did they specify what the problem is?"

"Not really just an injury of some kind."

"Alright I'll be right down," he stretches, "Go ahead and sign out an ATV and I'll meet you in the garage." Ending the call he leans over and kisses Edd on the cheek, "I got to go babe."

"Be safe," Edd replied sleepily and fell back to sleep meer moments after feeling Kevin's weight leave the bed.


	5. Parasite

Acheron Chapter 5 – Parasite

 **A/N- Personal Data Transmitters (PDT) as mentioned before unlock your doors (office, home and the like) and will log you into your computer terminal. Their other functions include, holding all personal information (SSN, credit card info, allergies, blood type, medical history and so on) they also send out your life signs and GPS location to the colony computer in case you get lost on this unknown world.**

The door slides open and Kipper jumps off the bed to greet whoever had just entered his home, the figure stood at the door as it slide shut behind her allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. Seeing the dog come toward her, she squats to the floor and extends her hand which held a pork chop bone. Kipper had inadvertently been trained to be too trusting of strangers, with all the visitors that had come to his parent's house over the years, or meeting new and unknown people on the walks he took with them during the evening hours. So though his first instinct was to bark at the unknown individual standing before him, his training had taught him not to, not to mention she was giving him a gift that smelled oh so good so she couldn't be all that bad right. Smelling the gift a few more times along with her hand he takes the bone and allows her to pet him behind the ear, then scurries off to a corner to enjoy his treat.

Satisfied that the canine was going to remain passive she walks further into the small living space, taking in her surroundings as best she could in the dark, trying her best not to make any noise to alert the remain occupant of her presence. Coming to the bedroom door she leans upon the frame and takes in the occupant who lay sleeping in the bed, lying on his side his breathing remained at a slow and steady pace. His dreams she could only guess at, his hopes as far as she was concerned were trivial, but in a way she was beginning to see him as the key to her desires. Walking over to the bed silently she places an object upon the bedside table and looks at the man closely, thinking to herself she wondered if getting into his good graces would get her closer to the object of her affections. That just maybe if she played her cards right she could become something to the two of them, and perhaps they would allow her into their lives. Letting her fantasies run wild she saw herself invited to dinners with the two of them, and ever so slowly coming closer to Kevin. After a while a glimmer of hope as they ask her to be their surrogate mother, which would mean she would be part of their family. Edd could be tolerated for that, couldn't he, the pregnancy along with birthdays and Christmas's flew by her eyes, the child being Kevin's of course, all natural no in vitro fertilization for this gal. She even saw the possibility of falling in love with Edd as well, moving in with them and sharing a bed together all wrapped up in the love they had for one another.

Snapping back into reality, she had found that while she was daydreaming she had squatted down and was looking the man in question square in the face. His eyes were still closed and his breathing still slow and even, his features were handsome but didn't compare to Kevin's, from what could be seen of his chest and arms she could tell that his physic was defined but not bulky like Kevin's. Reaching out her hand hesitantly but daringly she went to touch his cheek but pulled back at the last second as the man made a soft groan and rolled over to face away from her and pull Kevin's pillow to him. Whispering his name as he clutched the pillows close to him taking in the scent of the man he loved, standing, she quickly and quietly made her way out of the living quarters and back into the passageway. Once the door closed behind her the distinct sound of an incoming call rang through the quarters she had just exited, her timing and luck have yet to fail her, just another thing that reinforced her belief that she was on the right path.

Edd hears the tone for an incoming call and groggily reaches over to hit the button to accept the call, "Hello, can I help you," he asks half asleep seeing the unfamiliar face on the screen, glancing at the clock it was only four in the morning.

"My apologies for waking you up so early Doctor but your husband reported in a short time ago to inform us on the nature of the accident he was sent out to assist with, and I could use your help with the case." The blonde in the video seemed rather concerned.

"Pardon me but you seem to have me at a disadvantage, you are?" Edd's mind was still kicking into gear as he woke up.

"How rude of me, I am Dr. Van Bartonschmeer, the resident physician."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance Doctor," he yawns as he sits up in bed and stretches, "But why do you need a biologists help?"

"A parasitic organism of some kind has attached itself to one of the individuals," she pauses and looks down with an expression that Edd would describe as worry, "It will be easier for you to see it for yourself then to explain it. They should be arriving within the hour, can I count on your assistance Doctor?"

"Of course I will be happy to help, anything I can do to assist you Doctor," he hits a button and the lights come on, "Give me a little time to get ready and I will be down."

"Thank you Doctor, I appreciate it," hitting the end button he stands and heads into the bathroom to get ready, twenty minutes later he was showered, shaved and had his teeth cleaned. Going back into the bedroom followed by Kipper he pulls out his clothes for the day. Considering the events of the day he would forgo his usual dress clothes that he wore typically for office work and went with blue jeans a button up shirt and a black sweater vest. Sitting on his side of the bed to tie his shoes he noticed an object on his bedside table, something he was sure was not there when he went to sleep last night. It was a simple snow globe with a ballerina on her tiptoes perched on a lily pad in the center of what looked like water, taking a spare moment he wound the key on the bottom and it began to play Swan Lake as the little figure turned within the globe. Smiling to himself he set the snow globe back down and made a mental note to thank Kevin for the impromptu gift, though he couldn't put his finger on what the occasion was.

Standing he gives Kipper some much needed love and heads out the door and toward the Med Labs which were close to operations. Upon entering he was greeted by Dr. Van Bartonschmeer as she handed him a cup of coffee, "Thank you again Dr. Vincent-Barr, I do apologizes once again for waking you up so early."

"It's quite alright Doctor, think nothing of it," he takes a sip of his coffee and sits it down on one of the counter tops, "How long until they get here?"

"Roughly fifteen minutes or so."

"Is there any clear information on what has happened?" He takes a seat knowing it was only going to be a short respite before they needed to prepare themselves incase surgery was needed.

She shook her head at his question, "Nothing to definitive really, his wife didn't make much sense when she contacted us for help, and all the rescue team could tell us was that something has attached itself to his face, and that he appears to be unconscious but alive."

"That's not much to go on," he rubs his chin in thought as they both hear the sound of the engines from the shuttle fly over head.

"They're back earlier than expected," Nazz exclaims as she gets to her feet and the both of them set to work preparing themselves for the task at hand, scrubbing down their hands and forearms with soap and water. Approximately five minutes later Kevin and three other men rushed into the adjoining room carrying the gurney with an unconscious man upon it.

They lifted the man off the gurney and onto the med table, which seemed to startle the creature's for its tail which was wrapped round Mr. Jorden's neck tightened and Nat recoiled with a shriek allowing Mr. Jorden's right side to fall on the table. Noticing the stares he was receiving he spat out, "It moved, it fucking moved."

Setting his part of Mr. Jorden down on the table gently Kevin sighed and shook his head, "You afraid it's coming after your pretty face next Goldberg?"

"You never know," Nat said backing up slowly keeping his eyes on the creature.

"Well it's has what it wants right now, and won't be going anywhere," he points over to Edd and Nazz, "Until they make it go somewhere."

Both Edd and Nazz stepped out of the prep room wearing masks gloves and surgical gowns, "Thank you gentlemen, if you could wait outside in case we need you further."

"What further use could we be to you," Nat replied in a huff.

"Disposal," Edd said teasing the jumpy man, the truth was Edd wouldn't mind studying the creature a little, as long as it could be done safely, it was a new organism after all and the scientist in him craved the secrets it might hold.

"Come here brave man," Ed put his arm around Nat, "You can sit by me, I'll keep you safe," and he leads the man out of the door and into the hallway.

As the door opened Edd could see the Jorden family standing against the far wall waiting on any news about the man now lying on the table before him. "Shall we begin," Nazz asked as the door slide closed.

Edd nodded and began to examine the creature attached to Mr. Jorden visually, the parasite was large enough that none of the man's face could be seen. It had eight finger like digits that were gripping the man's head and were large enough that they reached around to the back of his skull, allowing it a firm hold on the man. It had to bladder like sacks on either side that rested on his cheeks, that filled and emptied as his chest rose and fell, the tail was securely wrapped around the man's neck. "Can we get a look on what's going on inside?" Nazz nods her head and pushes a few buttons on the table and it lights up under the man. They needed to know if the creature was feeding on the man or if it had another purpose, for why would it keep him alive if it's going to keep him unconscious, it scream fatal intent to Edd. After the scan had completed its cycle a 3-d model is displayed for them to view right in mid air above the table, rotating slowly so they could get upper lower and side angles of his inner workings.

The creature had two tubules down the man's throat that came out of a central tube that rested in his mouth. The first tubule came to rest in the man's trachea apparently feeding him oxygen, the second went down his esophagus midway then stopped. "It doesn't appear to be feeding on him," Nazz said as she looked at the apparent dossal tubules.

"So the question still remains, what is it doing to him then?" Edd was perplexed at the moment, animals don't do things without a reason behind them, food, shelter, reproduction and survival. But none of these things seem to be indicating why this creature attached itself to this man.

"Shall we attempt to remove it then?"

"Of course," Edd turns and wheals the tray of surgical tools closer to the table, "But be mindful, it is sustaining his life for whatever reason. If it looks like it's killing him we must either quicken our pace or abort the procedure."

"Agreed," Nazz reached over and grabbed a pair of medium sized forceps, "Let's see if we can loosen its grip on him." As soon as she gripped the finger with the forceps the tail tightened around the man's neck, "Alright let's try restraining the tail first." She sets the forceps on the table and helps Edd with the tail, it took the both of them with a great effort to get the tail from around his neck and then to restrain it using thick zip ties, but as soon as the tail was removed the creatures grip upon the man's head increased.

"We must hurry Doctor, if its tail is any indication of its strength it could crush his skull easily," Edd said frantically seeing the vice like grip it now had.

Putting the forceps back on the tray, she picks up a laser scalpel, "I'm going to try cutting the fingers off, just keep an eye on it for me, if it reacts badly let me know." Turning on the device she angles it to begin the cut, a small incision is all she made when a greenish liquid spewed out of the cut and melted the tip of the device, as well as landing on the floor and melting its way through the metal.

"Kevin," Edd called and the man ran into the room, "It's melting through the floor, make sure no one gets hurt." Kevin raced off and down the stairs, Edd turns his attention back to the creature, "Is it still bleeding?"

"No the cut sealed itself rather quickly," the sound of two snaps drew their attention and the zip ties go flying releasing the tail to return to where it was. "This little shit is well defended and exceptionally strong for a parasite."

"Agreed, we can't cut it off without killing the man, and prying it off will have the same affect, let's not even get started that we haven't even tackled the subject of overcoming the fact that it is sustaining his life." Edd looked perplexed, "Should we call it a draw and regroup, study it a little further and come up with a strategy?"

"Yes, that's probably for the best," Nazz removed her gloves and mask, "Now how to tell his wife and kids."

"That is the part of your job I do not envy Doctor," He patted the woman on the shoulder reassuringly as Kevin re-entered the room.

"That stuff ate through two floors easily before stopping." He looked from Edd to Nazz and back to Edd again, "What the hell is that thing?"

"That's what we intend to find out," Edd said as he walked to the other room to change out of his robes while trying to figure out where he should begin looking for answers to what their guest was.


	6. Royalty

Acheron Chapter 6 – Royalty

 **A/N- Alright I am sure the vast majority of you know what is going on by now if not I still need to explain this part. Facehuggers do not lay eggs, but instead deposit a special kind of tumor into its victim that binds with the hosts cells to produce the creature. Thus it gives the creature that is born some of the host's traits and a better chance of survival. There are two types of variants to the facehugger, normal and royal. A royal facehugger can produce two off springs if a hive is not already present, the second one it produces is a drone.**

Nazz monitored Mr. Jorden's vitals to ensure that the creature attached to his face had not begun any nefarious actions against the man, all the while pondering how best to remove it. As well as monitoring his vitals she ran a series of test on the man's blood, finding two types of chemicals within him that the creature must be putting there. The first made perfect sense the second was kind of a curious discovery, turning in her chair to face Edd, who was currently looking threw a microscope at skin samples from the creature, she presents her findings. Swiping up she sends the report from her tablet to the work tables display, sliding his finger across the surface of the table he scrolled through the document making a humming sound as though contemplating the discovery. Looking up from the document toward Nazz he asked, "So it's suppressing his immune system?"

She nods her head, "For what purpose is still unclear. I'm running a test for microorganisms in his blood now." Edd cocks a brow at her, "If it's suppressing his immune system it might be infecting him with some form of cell that gathers nutrients in some way."

"That's an excellent deduction doctor," Edd closed the file she had sent him then opened an image and enlarged it so it took up most of the surface of the table, by this time they had learned from Mrs. Jorden that it was inside a derelict spaceship where they had found creature. "As you can see in the image, the creature has no stomach or intestinal track of its own, so if it's feeding the way you think it is why subdue your host like it does. In its nature environment that would just invite opportunistic predators to come and feed on your food source and ultimately kill it, seems a little careless to me."

"Could be a part of the natural food chain on its planet, allowing lower end predators to eat something bigger than they normally could get on their own." She hoped her theory made sense, she wasn't a biologist after all, "It would also help explain the acidic blood for a defense mechanism, those predators wouldn't dare attack it for they would die in the process if they did."

"That's a very interesting theory, but one we will unfortunately never have the chance to prove." Closing the image on the table he turns back to the microscope, "Let me know your finding on that test." Making note of the complex structure of the creature's cells and the way they seemed to be formed, he removes the slide and inserts it into a slot in the table. Pulling up a command window he asks the compute to do a molecular analysis of the cells, as the machine did its work Edd stretched feeling the exhaustion setting in from being woken up so early in the morning. Twenty minutes later the screen on the table was displaying the results of the test as another file from Nazz appears beside it as the blonde wheeled her chair across from him again.

"No foreign micro organisms were detected in his system," she lets out a sigh of frustration, "There goes that theory out the window."

This just brought more questions into Edd's mind instead of answers, the other read out was showing that the creature was silicon based with a molecular composition Edd had never seen before. What strange primordial soup spawned the life on the planet this thing was from, or could the creature actually be more artificially made then a naturally occurring life form. "Well it looks like we are back to square one on its purpose."

"Any luck on your end?"

"Not really, we could try dermal applied sedatives to try and subdue it, but with its physiology and chemical makeup I'm not sure if it would actually affect it." He rubbed his eyes trying to wake himself up a little more, it had been at least six hours since Mr. Jorden had been brought in and they seemed to be no closer to figuring out this organism.

"Why don't we take a break for lunch," She punches in a few commands on the table and the med area Mr. Jorden was in sealed itself, "There the computer will let us know if anything changes." Reluctantly Edd took the doctors suggestion and left his work behind to go get something to eat, calling Kevin to join them at the bar and grill.

Kevin arriving fifteen minutes after them having farther to walk, their food arriving a moment later, Edd having order for his husband being fully aware what the man likes. Taking a bit of his hamburger he chews and swallows before speaking, "Any luck with our guest?"

Edd shakes his head, "No we are still at a loss as to what to do."

"I hear the Major wants to send the security team to investigate the wreckage, in case there are more of these things in there, Mrs. Jorden made it seem like there might be." Kevin takes a drink as the two Doctors pondered his words.

"I would have to advise against that," Edd stated and Nazz agreed with him, "If there are in fact more of these creatures in there, we might only end up with more people in the same position as Mr. Jorden."

"He'll probably do it anyways," Nazz states as she skewered the lettuce in her salad with her fork. "First off he has the public safety to think about and second once he's made his choice he can't second guess himself, he would appear weak."

The tablet that Nazz had sitting on the table by her plate starts to chime and she picks it up quickly, "What is it?" Edd asks as the chirping stopped and Nazz looked over the read out.

"It's come off," She says standing and heading toward the door followed by Edd and Kevin. Arriving at the door to the med bay the three of them look in through the glass door, seeing that the creature had in fact detached itself from Mr. Jorden but they could see no sign of it in the room. "Kevin would you call a security detail please," Nazz requested as she hit a button on the side of the door to bring up the lights in the room, hoping it was just the poor illumination that kept the creature out of sight.

Kevin enters operations across the hall from them and a moment later both he and Major Hadley join Nazz and Edd at the door. Looking in the Major asks, "Where is it?"

"We don't know," Edd says still looking in the room for any sign of movement.

A few minutes pass and a curvaceous bluenette with two men at her side join the growing group, "Major," she salutes the man.

"Sgt. Kanker, I need you and your men to sweep this room for an unknown organism," The Major ordered pointing in the direction of the med lab.

As she gently moved Nazz and Edd out of the way of the door, he warned her, "Be careful, it might try and attach itself to your face."

Taking in his words she pushed the button to open the door and removes her sidearm from its holster keeping it at the ready. Checking the corners as she entered the room she keeps her back to the areas she has already looked in and sweeps toward the opposite side of the area. Looking in nooks and crannies of the equipment on the shelves, behind and in cabinets and under tables but there was no sign of any organism. Stepping out of the room followed by the two men, "It's clear," she states to the Major.

"Begin a sweep of every floor, it couldn't have gotten far," The Major orders and Sgt. Kanker salutes him and departs with the two men in tow to get the rest of the security officers in her small detachment.

Down in the living quarters Bethany Reeves lay in her bed asleep having gotten off work early today due to the rescue mission having kept her up all night. Sleeping soundly she was unaware of the thing that was crawling slowly out of the air vent above her, making its way along the ceiling supported by eight finger like legs as it positioned itself to strike. She came into consciousness for a second as the thing landed upon her face delivering its neurotoxins that put her in a coma instantly as it did what its instincts told it to do. The person at the door ten minutes later was unaware of her situation, figuring that no one was home when she didn't come to the door as he rang the bell for the fifth time.


	7. Happy Birthday

Acheron Chapter 7 – Happy Birthday

 **A/N- A side effect of the toxin the face hugger uses is acute memory lose, generally most people don't even realize that anything has happened to them. Purebreds take longer to gestate then hybrids, purebreds are the Queen and the praetorian. And yes I am using all sources cannon and not so cannon.**

With the parasite off of Mr. Jorden's face and the room pronounced clear, Nazz and Edd quickly move to do a scan to see what could have caused the creature to dislodge itself so suddenly, while Kevin and the Major joined the search effort for it. Could it be due to something in our physiology that didn't go over well with it? Or did it get what it wanted and now had no use for the man? There had to be a reason and the two of them were determined to find out what it was. The machine only took a few seconds to go through its cycle and then brought up the 3D model of the man's inner workings floating above where he lay on the table. Rotating slowly only one thing was earmarked in a red flashing box that had a line drawn to its location, leaning his hands upon the table Edd read the flashing box. Tumor located in the chest cavity between the heart, lungs and spin at a growth rate of 100k cells per second with an exponential growth rate as more cells are created, metastasis has already begun.

"That's weird, this wasn't there the first time we scanned him," Edd pointed to the growth in the man's chest.

"It might have occurred due to the immune suppressants the creature was pumping into him," Nazz was looking closely at the image, "Cells go cancerous all the time, most of the time the immune system takes care of them, its only when cells reproduce at an alarming rate and overrun the immune system do you have a problem." She sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose, this man's luck has not been the greatest, and she didn't look forward to telling his wife that he needed cancer treatment. Luckily that treatment only required a regiment of shots, but they would have to be ordered and shipped here. But with the growth rate of the tumor they would probably have to perform surgery to hopefully keep the man alive long enough for them to arrive.

Edd studied the image closely but other than the tumor nothing seemed to be wrong with the man, the creature seemed to have no motive what so ever and to Edd that didn't make much sense, there is always a reason. Groaning in frustration he pushes away from the examination table and starts toward the door, "I have to step away from this for a second and think it over, call me if anything changes."

"Will do," Nazz called after him and as the door closed and Edd headed toward his quarters she turned off the 3D image and walks over to her computer terminal and logged in to send a message. The door to his quarters opens and Kipper greets him at the door, picking up the leash he attaches it to the dogs collar and heads toward the nearest airlock hatch. Walking a few paces away to be polite so Kipper didn't do his business in front of the door, he pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights one, taking a draw he inhales the smoke and exhales slowly enjoying the calming effect. He didn't smoke very often just mainly when he was faced with a problem he needed to think about, and used the drug to calm himself so he could think clearer.

Going over the facts calmly he tries to reason it out, the creature attaches itself to the persons face putting them in a coma to debilitate them. Then inserts two tubules down their throat, it doesn't feed off the person as far as they could tell, and if it did it was not in a conventional sense. Getting what it wants apparently it has detached itself and has gone to god only knows where to do god only knows what. Then there is the growth that has suddenly appeared in the man's chest, the computer has analyzed it and says its cancer, a very aggressive strain at that, but how could it be related to the creature. On the one hand it was to coincidental for Edd's liking, but he could not for the life of him link them together, for cancer is formed from your cells. If it was an egg laid in him, like some Parasitoid Apocrita do on earth, then the computer would have marked it as foreign tissue. Nothing was making much sense about this and the more he thought about it the more he was meeting a dead end. Flicking the cigarette away and seeing that Kipper was done and he praises the dog, "That's a good boy, introduce that bio-matter to the environment."

Taking his attention away from Kipper he visually scanned the alien terrain with its rocky outcrops and a splendid view of Calpamos and its other moon on the horizon. Edd wondered where the creature was currently, if it was scurrying along the rocky surface back to its home, or if it was still currently within the facility looking for its next victim. Calling to Kipper to follow him with a few clicks of his tongue they head back to the facility to help in the search effort, Nazz would inform him if she needed his assistance. All that was left to do was wait for the man to wake up and hopefully find the creature before someone else fell victim to it.

The thorough search of the facility for the parasite continued for several hours before it was finally found dead in a secluded corner of the complex. Edd was informed by Sgt. Kanker shortly after it was discovered, asking her to bring it up to the labs for further study, maybe he could discern its purpose upon closer examination. Laying it upon a tray he ran several tests upon it, discovering that the "blood" and neutralized upon its death, allowing him to dissect it and get a more hands on look at its inner workings. A nerve cluster ran along the spin which must be its brain, several organs within the body cavity, the likes of which he has never seen before, had him stumped on what their function could be.

He was interrupted by a call as he was typing up his report on what little he has discovered about the specimen. Pushing the accept button on his desks surface, Nazz's face appears in a rectangular box, "Yes doctor, how can I assist you?"

"Mr. Jorden has woken up, if you would like to come in and help with the examination."

"I'll be right there," ending the call he makes the short trip to the med lab and enters through the door to see the man sitting upon the table.

Nazz was currently checking the man's pupil response with a small pen light, "How are you feeling Mr. Jorden?"

"Please call me Russ," he coughs and swallows, "Got a sore throat, other than that can't complain."

Nazz puts the pen light away and starts to check the man's next for swelling by pressing her fingers against key spots, "That's to be expected."

"What the hell happened?"

Edd was a little confused, "You don't remember?" the man shakes his head, "What is the last thing you do remember then?"

"I was out doing a survey with my family, we had discovered a crash site along a ridge and me and Anne went in to go investigate it." He looked as though he was having a hard time recalling anything else past that point, "Then some terrible dreams."

The door opens behind Edd, looking over his shoulder he sees Mrs. Jorden walking through the entrance at a fast pace toward her husband, "Russ, are you alright," turning to Nazz, "He's alright isn't he?"

Edd gently guides her away from the examination table stopping a few feet from it, "The doctor is still trying to determine that, maybe you can help me."

"Sure, I'll be glad to do whatever I can to help."

"Why don't you tell me what happened in that ship."

"Well it's just like I told the Major, I wasn't with him when it happened," She looks over at her husband who was still being examined by Nazz. "I stayed at the top of the shaft to operate the winch," she turns back to Edd, "The funny thing is that it was already there and set up, like it was waiting for us."

"The winch?" She nods in response, so someone else has already been there, how curious, "Did he happen to describe anything he saw?"

"Just that there were a lot of oval like objects down there," eggs Edd thought to himself, "The last thing he said was that he was going to take a closer look at one of them." She looks back to her husband then down to the floor, "That's all I have really, sorry if it's not much."

"That's fine, it was a big help," so it came from an egg he pondered.

Mr. Jorden flinches from pain and grabs his chest, and Nazz asks, "Are you alright?"

"Just my chest hurts," he replies and Nazz puts her stethoscope up to his chest to check his heart beat while checking his pulse with her fingers, she hears something weird.

More pain and this time it was noticeable as he screams out, Edd rushes over and helps Nazz put the man on the table again as Mrs. Jorden cups her hands to her mouth, the scan quickly ends and comes up. Embedded in the man's chest was a serpentine like creature that was moving rather roughly toward the front of his chest, "What the fuck is that?" Nazz asks as they saw it spit something at his sternum, the man was now convulsing in pain as the image shows the creature coiling its lower body.

"We have to get that out of him," Edd calls out and Nazz nods, the creature springs forward and slams its head against the bone, the impact was visible on the rib cage as blood spurted out, Mrs. Jorden screams out.

Nazz rushed to retrieve the scalpel, the creature coils again, picking up the tool she comes back quickly to the table and the creature slams the bone again breaking it and puncturing through the skin. Mr. Jorden was dead, the creature surveyed its surroundings while still nesting within the dead man's body, Mrs. Jorden is hysterically screaming, Edd is in disbelief and Nazz has dropped the scalpel. It hisses at the both of them and quickly rushes off and into the air vents.

 **A/N- Now let the fun begin as all that was once safe and sound is now open to doubt, the home and hearth are now terror and dark, the bump in the night shall bring forth such fright, the shadow in the corner can hold such horror.**


	8. Duck Season, Rabbit Season

Acheron Chapter 8 – Duck Season, Rabbit Season

 **A/N- This creatures life cycle is like a virus, a virus attaches itself to a host cell, implants its DNA then falls off and dies, the cell is then forced to create more virus's, and the newborn's burst out of the cell, killing it. Gestation is based on the type of creature being born and the metabolism of the host, hypersleep puts a person metabolism to a near standstill and anyone brought out of it abruptly would have a suppressed metabolism thus causing gestation to take longer. Dshell99 "** **I'm an effigy A parody of who I appear to be Put your flaming torches under me" Natalie Merchant Effigy. Warnings: Violence and Death.**

As Mr. Jorden lay upon the table dead, the splatter of his blood on all the nearby equipment, Nazz gently led his wife out of the Med Lab while Edd removed his bloody lab coat, then went across the hall to operations. Entering the room he found the person he was looking for quickly, "Major, we need to talk."

The Major motioned for Edd to follow him into his office, "What's this about Doctor?"

"It's about Mr. Jorden," Edd began as they entered the office.

"How is Russ doing?" The Major closed the door behind them, "I heard he's finally woken up."

"He's dead sir," the Major was noticeable shaken by the news, pausing a moment at the door to look Edd in the eyes before he moved toward his desk, "Apparently the creature laid an egg or something inside the man."

Spinning around he motioned with his arm violently as he pointed at Edd, "How didn't you notice this?" He wheeled his chair around and sat in it, trying to calm himself.

"The embryo showed up as a tumor on our last scan, so I must conclude that it used some sort of virus to implant it," Edd expression told the Major that he was still clueless as to how it really happened. Edd recalled the conversation he had earlier with Kevin and Nazz over lunch about the Major's plans, "I would suggest quarantining that ship, do not allow anyone to enter it or to even get close to it."

The man rubs his hand down his face, "I will take your suggestion under advisement once the security detail returns."

Edd sank into the seat in front of the desk, "What have you done?"

"They are taking a payload of explosives to the crash site, their orders are to destroy as many of these "Eggs" as possible then seal the entrance to this cavern Mrs. Jorden has told us about."

"You've put them all in danger," Edd said exasperated with the man who sat before him.

"You're over reacting Doctor," the Major looked confident in his plan, "They will be wearing their riot gear, which includes a face plate, so if these things do attack them, they will have a hard time getting to them."

"I hope you're right about that," Edd let out a brief sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "There is the more pressing matter at hand of finding this newborn creature before it does who knows what."

"Though I agree we need to find it, I don't see what it can do to us."

"I am going to assume it has the same acidic blood as its parent, so follow me here ok. If this thing falls into a fan that is positioned over a key area of the Atmosphere processor, we could have any number of problems on our hands, which could include a thermal nuclear explosion."

"I see you're point," the Major pushes the intercom button, "Sarah could you come in here?" A moment later the doors opens and his blonde hair assistant enters the room, "Sarah I'll need you to organize everyone in the garage for a little town meeting."

"Yes sir," She responded and headed back into the main room of operations.

"Doctor," The Major stood and motioned toward the door.

As they walked down the hall Edd looked into the Med Lab where Nazz was currently cleaning up the mess from Mr. Jorden's death. The body of the man still laying on the table, covered in a black cloth, the intercom was heard overhead, "Attention all residence, a mandatory town meeting has been called, please proceed to the garage for the Major's address."

Entering the garage Edd could see that some of the closer residence had already shown up, "What the hell's going on here Major?" Ang calls out as she came out from behind the counter of the supply shop.

The Major tried to calm her down, motioning with his hands as he spoke, "Now settle down Ang, you'll be getting everything we know shortly, just like everyone else."

Sy storms over to the Major with a wrench in hand shaking it in his face as she spoke, "Where's our damn ATV huh, your guys still haven't brought it back."

He moved the wrench out of his face with the back of his hand, "That vehicle is on its way back here as we speak, one of Kevin's men is driving it here, but it will take time." Frustrated but satisfied with what she was told, Sy backed off with a huff and joined Ang back at the desk sitting her wrench down.

During the twenty minute wait for everyone to show up the Major went over the search plans with his first and second officer. They refined it from what they had done only hours before, and conferring with Edd on what they knew about the creature along with asking for supplies for the hunt from Ang. When the last of the maintenance crew arrived, Kevin took his place beside Edd, "What's happening?"

Before Edd could respond the Major begins, "Good evening everyone, I know it's been a rough day for us all but we have some unfortunate news." He clears his throat and continues, "A short while ago Russ Jorden died from complications due to the parasite that had attached itself to him." Chatter at the news arose from the crowd and a few questions were asked over the chatter, "Apparently the organism laid some sort of egg in him before it died, the diagnostic equipment did not register this as anything more than a tumor, so unfortunately the medical staff was unaware of its true purpose." The Major seemed to debate with himself for a second on how much information to disseminate to them, "Russ died as the creature, umm, came out of,,, him"

The crowd went into an uproar with questions about safety and whether there were more of these parasites, "Came out, what the hell do you mean came out," Ang asked with a mix of emotions on her face, fear, disgust and confusion.

"People, people please calm down," the Major yelled over the chatter as he motioned with his hands, "We are taking steps to ensure your safety. But right now we need to concentrate on searching for this new organism the good Doctor here let escape." He motioned for Edd to step forward, "Doctor if you would be so kind as to tell everyone what to look for."

Edd steps forward and clears his throat, "The creature is serpentine, approximately two feet in length from head to tail, and beige in color. Please be careful if you find it and try and contain it, we do not know what defenses it might have other than its acidic blood."

Edd steps back, "Thank you Doctor," the Major turns and address's the crowd again, "If you all will be patient we will assign you to search teams in a moment, once assigned please see Angela for your supplies. Kevin, I leave the processor in you and your team's capable hands."

An hour later and Kevin had his team of forty people plus three teams of three ready to search the atmosphere processor. The plan was for half of the group to start at the top of the complex while the other half started in the sublevels, searching floor by floor, and meeting somewhere in the middle. With the aid of low tech motion trackers they used to hunt down rodent nests, they begin their search, "This is fucking bull shit," Nat spat as the teams dispersed.

"Sorry man," Kevin clapped him on the shoulder as he went to join Bridget and Bethany to begin his search of the lower levels.

"We just don't got the gear for this shit," He looked at the flimsy net that was in his hands. He was right though, groups that didn't get a net got a cattle prod and vise versa and only a quarter of the groups had a motion tracker.

"We just got to make due man," Kevin stated as he lead the two ladies toward the stairs that lead down to the sublevels as Nat headed toward the elevator with Big Ed and Jonny in tow to begin his search at the top floor.

Reaching sublevel three Bridget turns on the device in her hands and sweeps it back and forth as the quite but constant ping from the device told them it was working. "It's clear," she said as Kevin leaned over to her and looked at the screen to confirm this.

"This way," he waves them down a corridor that was lined with pipes running along the wall. The trouble with most of the areas in the APP is that it is dimly lit, being a fully automated plant means that there was no permanent personal assigned to it other than the maintenance team coming here for repairs occasionally. So the company in their grand wisdom decided that minimal lighting was all the place really needed, if more was required for a job they would bring along a portable set of lamps that were placed on a tripod. The background noise of the plant in operation was a low steady hum as it separated waste from the atmosphere, split and combined atoms to create a breathable air mixture.

Each junction they came to they would sweep with the motion tracker but found no movement, each step took them deeper into the complex, "Anything," he asks his two companions.

Bridget shakes her head, and Bethany replies in a whisper, "These things don't have much of a range."

"But if the little fuckers hiding between the pipes it's our best chance at finding it."

"To bad we didn't have enough for everybody," Bridget stated the obvious as she swung the device toward another corridor.

"They'll just have to keep their eyes peeled then," Bethany retorted, the motion tracker signals that there was movement with a quiet bleep and indicated the direction and distance of the movement.

Bridget points down the corridor and mouths that way to Kevin, the three of them slowly moved forward trying to stay as quiet as they could so they didn't scare the animal away. Slowly the counter reached zero meters and the direction was pointing toward the wall to their left, pulling out his flashlight Kevin started to look between the pipes that lined the wall starting from the top and working his way downward.

Bethany puts her hand to her chest as a mild discomfort was felt there but dismisses it, "You alright," Bridget asks and Kevin shushes them as he gets down on the floor to look at the bottom pipes.

"I'm fine," she replies quietly and readies the net, Kevin reaches his hand under the pipe at the bottom having seen movement but was unable to see what it was. Reaching further in as a sharp pain hits Bethany in the chest and she groans softly.

"Quiet," Kevin calls out silently, and was abruptly bitten by a rat, "Ow," he calls out as he retracts his hand.

"You alright?" Bridget asks as Kevin rolls over shaking his hand and looks up in time to see a spear like tail slam forward and through Bridget's back and out her chest. Bethany cries out as the pain in her chest become unbearable, Kevin scrambles to his feet and takes Bethany's hand to guide her back, at first he thought it was fear that made her cry out. Slowly backing up trying not to draw the attention of the creature, Bridget was lifted off the ground and into the air by the protruding tail where the creature had been laying in wait for them on the ceiling, nestled between the pipes that rain overhead. Bethany screams again and Kevin looks down to see her chest unnaturally contort as though something had slammed into it from the inside. The creature overhead grabs Bridget by the shoulders and roughly extracts its tail as its jaw opens slowly and a hiss could be heard from the creature, once fully open a pharyngeal jaw shoots out and slams into the back of Bridget's head killing her instantly. Dropping the body to the floor it descends to the ground and takes Kevin's measure as Bethany goes into convulsions landing on the floor between them as one more slam to the chest send blood flying and a new creature is born.

Kevin slowly inches away as the grown monster no longer noticed him but paid attention to the newborn. His foot hits the motion tracker that had fallen to the floor, and he closes his eyes for a split second as he mouthed shit. The creature looks his direction and hisses threateningly but did not move from its place guarding the newborn, it slithered up the body of the adult positioning itself on its back and made a series of calls to the elder. The creature turns and disappears into the shadows once again. Kevin slumps on the floor for a second as his legs gave out from the fright. Willing himself up onto his feet he runs for the stairs and up, up, up hitting the evacuate button when he finally saw one and his training kicked in, signaling the others to leave the area.


	9. Darkness Falls Across the Land

Acheron Chapter 9 – Darkness Falls Across the Land

 **A/N- Some people do not wake up from the comma induced by the Facehugger until the last second before their deaths. It's like oh I'm awake, what happened, boom I'm dead. The creatures are immune to their own acidic blood, i.e. one can die and splash its blood on another and it does no damage, although other forms of acid will hurt them. Think on how some acids won't eat through glass but others will, or that some won't eat through plastic but another will. Also the eggs are living thinking things that's only sole purpose is to keep the facehugger alive until it can do what it does.**

The shuttle fought turbulent winds as it made its way from the colony to the derelict ship the Jorden's had investigated less than twenty four hours ago. The crew for this little pest control operation consisted of four members of the Maintenance crew to handle and detonate the explosives, all six members of the security team to help ensure their safety and the pilot and co-pilot of the shuttle.

Making a hard turn around a rocky outcropping revealed their destination, a strange U shaped vessel that had crash landed upon the rocky surface of the planet. The right arm of the ship has seemed to have taken damage and was hanging lower than the left, leaving a jagged opening within the outer hull. As they circled the wreckage to begin their landing Sgt. Kanker points toward a section of rocks some one hundred meters away from the ship, "Is that what I think it is?"

The co-pilot focused his gaze in the direction she was pointing then responded, "It looks like one of our ATV's."

Sgt. Kanker mused, "What is it still doing here?" Flipping a switch on the control panel next to her she calls, "This is shuttle Tiberius to control, do you read me, over?"

A few seconds later she receives a response, "We read you Tiberius, over."

"I wanted to make sure, but didn't Kevin leave someone behind to bring back the ATV, over?"

"That is correct Tiberius, Jim should be several hours from your destination by now, over."

"That's a negative control, the ATV is still on site, over."

"Tiberius, please assess the situation and apprise us of your findings, over."

"Understood control, over and out," She flipped the switch once again cutting off the signal.

The landing gear extends and the shuttle makes a ruff touchdown upon the somewhat level but jagged surface between the ATV and the derelict ship. The air tight seal of the shuttle was broken as the loading ramp started to lower allowing the wind and debris of the outside atmosphere to come flooding into the compartment. "Rodriguez, Johnson you're with me, the rest of you start preparing the supplies." Approaching the vehicle from the rear they could see the driver side door was slightly ajar, Sgt. Kanker readies her shotgun but did not point it at the door, "Jim are you there?"

No reply was heard over the roar of the wind, stepping closer to the door she could see what looked like blood spatter upon the door and front windshield. Making a few hand gestures she lets Rodriguez know to get his weapon ready and for Johnson to open the door, getting into position she signals Johnson to open it. Reaching up slowly he grabs the handle and slides the door back quickly, dropping Jim's body to the ground face down, she motioned for Johnson to check the body while they continued to check the vehicle. The trouble with the ATV is that the only windows it had were located in the front cab, the back area for sleeping and storage could only be check by entering the vehicle.

Slowly and cautiously Sgt. Kanker puts her left hand on the passenger assist handle and her right foot on the first step of the small ladder while keeping her shotgun at a somewhat ready position. Climbing the two steps she enters the cab and quickly slides toward the middle pointing her weapon in the direction of the rear storage section. It was a little disheveled and unorganized, but there was no sign of any immediate threat to herself. She flips the interior light switch to bring some illumination to the situation but found that nothing happened, leaving her to check the vehicle in the dark. Slowly and as quietly as she could she crawled her way back in a duck walk like fashion checking each of the cramped looking bunks one at a time, finding them clear of any threat. Now to the back of the vehicle where there were 2 small lockers for MRE and clothing storage, each were about four feet tall and one and a half feet wide, each one big enough to hide a small animal like the parasite in it, and one of the doors was ajar. Inching closer she reaches her hand up to the door with her weapon at the ready, sliding her fingers around the edge of the door she swings it open getting hit by something landing upon the face plate of her helmet blocking her view. Scurrying backwards she knocks it off of her and toward the back of the vehicle pointing the barrel of her weapon in its direction, she chuckled to herself as she discovered that it was nothing more than a folded up shirt that had fallen off a shelf.

Turning back to the front she sees Rodriguez sitting in the driver's seat with his weapon at the ready but pointed a little toward the floor to avoid accidently shooting her. "It's clear," she calls up to him and starts to make her way back to the front as Rodriguez began to climb down from the vehicle. Stepping down from the last step she turns to find Johnson and Rodriguez standing over Jim's body that was now lying on its back. Moving past Rodriguez to get a better view of the corps she sees a hole in the middle of the man's chest, "What do you think happened?"

"The bones are bent outwards as though something impaled him from behind, but there is no entry point on his back," Johnson replied.

Rodriguez muttered, "What does that mean?"

"Something must have exploded out of him," Sgt. Kanker pondered. Pulling herself together she barked, "Alright let's get him to the ship." Rodriguez taking the man by the shoulders and Johnson the legs, they carried the corpse up the small incline toward the shuttle, placing him on the deck Rodriguez and Johnson cover him up in a tarp while Sgt. Kanker headed toward the front to inform control of Jim's death. Unbeknownst to her or the radio operator, but at that very moment Edd was informing the Major of Russ Jorden's death by the very same cause and the ensuing wide scale search would cause the Sgt.'s message to be delayed.

Getting the order to continue the operation she checks that everything is ready, then leads the group into the ship through what appeared to be one of three large airlocks. The main corridor lead into an expansive round room with a central dais that held a massive control HUD that was attached to some sort of chair. "This seems to be the place," Marie called out to the group, after recognizing the room from Mrs. Jorden's description, "Spread out and find our entry point," she called to the security team. Walking closer to the chair Sgt. Kanker could see its occupant, the alien life form appeared to be fossilized and melded to the chair, with a hole in its chest that had the bones bent outwards.

"Sgt. over here," Marachuk called as he waved her over, snapping her out of her thoughts. Pulling her attention from the corpse in the center of the room she walks over to where the man was standing. On the floor was a hole that was about two and a half feet to three feet wide, just barely big enough for someone to squeeze through, and most certainly would not accommodate the bigger boxes that held the explosives in them. Over the hole stood a small wench held up by a foldable tripod, picking up the long left behind piece of equipment she read the markings on it which were surprisingly in English, USCSS Nostromo 1809246(09). Setting it aside they started assembling their own wench, which had two sets of pulleys on separate motors to make ingress and regress faster. Once everything was set up they lowered down two security officers then began to lower the explosives in small containers. While they did this the four maintenance crew members set up several explosives within the room they were currently in, hoping to topple the structure and seal the hole. With all the bombs in place up top and linked to a remote detonator the remaining crew descended leaving the two pilots up top to operate the wench.

As she was lowered into the hole she had a sense of claustrophobia nag the back of her mind as the small tunnel did not open up for some twenty feet. But once through it she found herself in an expansive cave that ran further then she could see in both directions with her dim helmet light. At the floor of the cave awaited the nine members of her team on a small ridge that seemed to run the width of the cave bordered on both sides by what appeared to be eggs. These must be the eggs the Jorden's had told them about and the objective of their mission. Reaching the bottom she unhooked herself from the line and stepped forward, "Marachuk, Johnson and Samuels guard our left, Rodriguez, Cooper and myself will guard the right. You four set up the bombs, two to the left and two to the right, then quickly get back here so we can get the hell out of this place."

The four men set to their task with much urgency, grabbing a bomb each and running off into the field of eggs as the six security officers watched from the ridge for any signs of movement. "Why do I feel like we are being watch," Cooper stated with a little sign of nervousness in his voice.

"Stow it Copper," Sgt. Kanker barked at the man, but had to admit that a chill was running down her spin as well, she felt like prey being hunted and she did not like it. An egg opens near one of the men, "Chuck to your three," the Sgt. warns the man and takes aim, pulling the trigger as the man moves to his left and out of the way.

As the creature that was emerging dies an absolutely alien roar could be heard in the cave that died off into a screeching hiss, Rodriguez in a very low voice asks, "What the fuck was that?"

Movement along the wall approaching them quickly, a single unknown creature from what she could tell, but it didn't appear to be friendly. "Everyone, fall back," Sgt. Kanker calls and waves her arm beckoningly. The four men deep in the field begin to run toward the ridge, and as they passed the eggs several of them began to react and open releasing their cargo into the world. As Chuck reached the ridge and began to climb out a parasite jumps hitting him in the face causing him to fall to the ground, "Get him up, Get him up," the Sgt. points to the ground the man had collapsed to. Copper reaches down and picks the man up as the Sgt. and Rodriguez take aim and fire at the approaching parasites, as the other hostile was closing in.

"Sgt. the face plates aren't any good," Copper calls out and she looks down for a moment to see that the creature had melted its way through the plate and was attached to the mans face.

Tapping the side of her helmet she opens a line to the pilots up top, "David, we're evacuating, move that wench like your life depends on it."

"Yes ma'am."

Copper drags chuck to the rope and attaches it, giving it a quick tug to signal he was ready. The lifeless body is quickly taken up the shaft as Copper attaches another crew member to the line and up they went. Marachuk goes down as a parasite attaches itself, a crew member drags him to the line while defending himself with the rifle from another assault. Attaching Marachuk to the line he tugs and the man begins his assent as the creature lands on the other side of the ridge from them, the last unarmed man begins his assent as it starts to charges. The Sgt. takes aim and fires clipping it in the arm, it dodges to the right into the field and back toward them jumping over them to the wall behind them with two parasites on its back that leapt off as it jumped again and soared over head, hitting Copper and the other crew member with them.

Once the lines were back down Samuels and Rodriguez attach the lines to Copper and the last crew member as the Sgt. and Johnson kept the line of defense as best they could. As the lines went up the four of them faced off with what remained of the parasites and the unknown creature. "We must dispatch the bigger beast if we plan to make it out of here," Sgt. Kanker stated to her subordinates. Samuels and Johnson guarded against the parasites that remained as Rodriguez and the Sgt. took on the bigger foe. As the creature took a low stance and hissed in their direction the two of them took aim and as it leaped into action to run toward them they unloaded upon it sending it to the ground in a heap of its own sizzling blood.

What remained of the active parasites was few now, "Rodriguez, Samuels get going," she says as she points to the lines with her thumb. Attaching the lines the two men start their assent, Sgt. Kanker looks up when a riffle comes crashing to the ground to see that Rodriguez had fallen victim to a parasite half way up. As she turned her attention back to the few remaining parasites she pulls the trigger to only hear a click in response, "Damn," out of bullets.

 **A/N- Cliffhanger lol, I'm back (evil laugh).**


	10. The Midnight Hour is Close at Hand

Acheron Chapter 10 – The Midnight Hour is Close at Hand

 **A/N- This chapter starts off while Kevin is leading the search of the APP complex, right before the birth of the Queen and while Marie is fighting for her life at the crash site. We are still in the same day since chapter 5, just thought I would let you know, I would say by the end of this chapter it will be roughly 7 at night.**

After the town hall meeting Edd wished Kevin good luck with the search and headed toward the med lab to see if there was anything else he could learn from Mr. Jorden's corpse. Giving the good Major the stink eye as he passed him, who does that man think he is to blame this whole thing on him, everything happened so fast that there was no time to react and the escape of the creature just couldn't be helped. He wasn't there, he didn't have to witness a man's chest exploding open like that, and that memory that was still fresh in Edd's mind was keeping his nerves on edge. But now wasn't the time to show such weakness, now was the time to strengthen his resolve so he could learn all he could about the creature in a hope that he might find a way to prevent this from happening again. Just in case someone from the expedition the Major has sent out to that crashed ship returns with one of those things attached to them. Edd, however, kept up hope that the Major's reckless decision hadn't brought misfortune to some unlucky soul, and that everyone would return from there safe and sound.

Entering the lab Edd was confronted by his failure, a failure that had cost a man his life, Mr. Jorden's corpse was still lying upon the operating table with a white sheet hiding him from the world. Dr. Van Bartonschmeer exits her office as the door closes behind him, carrying the toe tag to place on Mr. Jorden's body. Looking in the direction of the door she halfheartedly greets Edd when she makes eye contact with him, "How can I help you doctor?"

"We need to do an autopsy as soon as possible."

"Is there a reason for the rush?"

"That fool has sent more people out there." Edd knew that the Major was only doing what he thought was right and was just look out for the safety of the people under his command. But that didn't stop Edd from being a little irritated with the man right now.

She walks over and places a hand upon his shoulder, "I understand, you don't want this to happen to anybody else." Giving him a smile that was mixed with sadness she removes her hand, "Come on, I was just about to get started, for the death certificate, if you would like to assist me."

The pair walked over to the table the corpse was upon, Nazz taking the opposite side from Edd, she punches in a few commands into the control panel and the scanners imbedded within the table spring to life. Doing an in-depth scan of the body took the devices a few minutes to complete, during this time Edd assisted Nazz as she drew a few vials of blood for testing from the man's arm. Wheeling the tray of surgical tools over to the table was the final preparation before they began, a chime from the control panel told them that the scan was complete and ready to be viewed. Hitting a button, an in-depth 3D holographic model appeared over the table slowly turning with several markers of interest pointing at different locations on the model with a prompt for a dialog box attached to them.

Below the rupture in the man's chest was a small mass which Edd surmised must have been the placenta the creature used to nourish itself while it gestated within that man. From this mass extended several tube like growths that attached themselves to the lungs, heart, stomach and intestines. Pointing to the marker in the intestinal track with the pen the 3D model zooms into the area and the dialog box opens to display its information. "Unknown organism detected, it is parasitic in nature attaching itself throughout the small and large intestines, graphing to each organ to absorb nutrients to feed itself, it has a growth rate of two thousand cells per second at this sight." Damn it's still growing, but why, isn't its purpose over with the birth of the creature, what could this mean?

Zooming back out they examined each marker and all of them told the same story, "These findings are unsettling," Nazz's expression told of her worry as she examined the placenta. "Even if we were to extract the organism before it was born, this network that it forms to collect nutrients would eventually kill the host."

"I think are main concern should be removing the parasite, I feel we gave up to quickly the last time," Edd's expression was noticeably bothered, their choice to gather more information on the creature instead of taking it off was haunting him.

Recognizing it Nazz speaks up, "It wasn't anyone's fault, no one could have predicted what was going to happen and you shouldn't blame yourself for it."

"You're right, but I still feel like I should have tried harder, I am not going to let this happen again."

"Alright, but let's think logically and look at several outcomes instead of putting all our eggs in one basket," Edd motions for her to continue. "If we have multiple patients for example and we can't remove all the parasites before implantation, or we can't safely remove the parasite, then we are going to have to operate as quickly as possible to remove the growth."

Edd nods, "I agree, it is imperative to remove the embryo and placenta as quickly as possible and as early as possible, before it starts reaching out to the patients organs."

"And if speed is not possible, then what are we going to do? Because we are going have to reach behind their heart and lungs to remove it from the spine, which is going to cause one operation to take several hours, at the minimum." She enlarged the model to zoom into the area of the spine the mass was attached to, "At the early stages it should be easy to remove, but at the later stages we might only be able to get the organism out and nothing more." She brought his attention to where the fully formed mass was firmly attached to the spine, they were almost one and the same.

They both took a moment to ponder this information until Edd broke the silence with a question, "Do you think the cancer treatment would work against this?"

"It's possible but a long shot at best," this creature seemed to have an uncanny ability to put up road blocks for saving its host life. "I have already put in an order for some though, but it will take some time before it gets here, so until then I'll ask Ang if any of her connections might have some available."

"That might be a good idea."

With the possible scenarios covered Nazz snaps on the latex gloves, then hands him a pair of them o put on, then puts on a pair of protective glasses, "Well it's time to get our hands dirty." The physical part of the autopsy took an hour, as they examined the fibers that crisscrossed through the body, taking various samples to study closer under the microscope. Removing the man's heart Nazz takes a better look at the attachment point of the mass, "It looks like it's trying to burrow to the other side of the spi…." The evacuation alarms begin to blare throughout the complex, the two of them removed their protective gear quickly. Exiting the lab they ran down the hall to the designated gathering point to await further instructions. Was some critical system damaged in the APP and now all the non essential personal needed to evacuate for safety reasons, or was it more?

As they reached the garage and waited to be informed of the situation the roar of the shuttles engines was heard over head as it was coming in for a landing. "Attention," a voice called over the speaker system a few moments later, "All clear, all clear, please return to your designated search areas." The voice repeated the message one more time then added, "Dr. Van Bartonschmeer and Dr. Vincent-Barr please report to the med lab immediately."

Rushing back to the med lab they were both greeted by five gurneys being carried through the door, each occupant had a parasite firmly attached to them. Their worst fears had just been realized, not only would they have to quickly remove these things, but they had five lives in their hands and the clock was ticking. "We need more hands," Edd states as they enter the room and cleared the operating table for the first patient, Marachuk, John J. He called for a few of his assistance to aid them while Nazz called upon her nurse. Nazz oversaw the removal of the parasite from Rodriguez while Edd took care of Marachuk, each person on the team worked in tandem with each other to try and keep the parasite from strangling its victim while working to remove it. The diagnostic equipment keeping a close eye on the patient's vitals, Edd's team was slowly pulling back the creature from the man's face as Nazz's team wasn't far from removing it as well.

They had the digits and tail removed from around the victim's throat and head and was now in the process of extracting the proboscis from his mouth when a set of alarms started to blare from the monitoring devices and the patient started to convulse. Looking up the warning read, Shock, and a list of warnings for the man's vitals started to scroll rapidly before he flat lined as the creature was finally removed. Throwing it in a specimen jar that was filled with water and locking it in there, he returns to his patient and begins chest compressions and mouth to mouth. Nazz had the same issue with her patient and was now trying to resuscitate him with the defibrillator, but shortly after the five minutes it takes for the brain to die, Nazz called their times of death.


	11. Creatures Crawl in Search of Blood

Acheron Chapter 11 – Creatures Crawl in Search of Blood

 **A/N- As stated before the creature's gestation period within their host is determined by the hosts metabolism, so two people infected at the same time might give birth at totally different times. Also it should be noted that once the creature has been interbreed with a species the resulting face huggers that are produced afterward will speed up this process. Because the embryo has become more adept at using your bio matter and more in sync with your physiology, so shorter implantation time and shorter gestation time.**

While Edd and Nazz were desperately trying to remove the parasites from those five individuals in the med lab, Sgt. Kanker was in the midst of being interrogated by the Major for her inability to keep her men safe. The heavy set man paced back and forth in front of his desk wiping the sweat from his brow, the colonist were going to have his head for this. "What the **fuck** happened out there Marie?"

"We were met with heavier than expected resistance sir," she stood stiffly at attention, her grief over failing to protect her men evident upon her face.

"Stronger than expected resistance," the man scoffed.

"There was a second unknown lifeform there, sir."

"That little worm," he leaned against his desk and ran his hand down his face, "You got to be fucking joking." He had ascertained that Jim had been infected and gave birth to one of the creatures, due to seeing the corps.

She cocked a brow at him in confusion, "This thing was not little sir and it sure in the hell wasn't no worm." She let out a shaky breath as she recalled that adrenaline filled moment when the creature was staring her down ready to pounce, "This thing had to be eight, eight and a half feet tall and very aggressive."

His look was one of disbelief, "The Jorden's didn't mention any hostile creature from when they were there." He let a soft groan of frustration out, two people have already died, now possible five more were going to suffer the same fate, "Let's just hope they can get them off."

A knock upon the glass of his office door drew both of their attentions to the entrance were Kevin stood visibly shaken, the Major motions for him to enter. As he entered the Major instantly went into questioning him, "What the hell happened at the APP that an alarm was tripped."

He takes a seat in one of the not so comfortable office chairs in front of the desk, his hands were visibly shaking as they went to grasp the armrest, "I had to get everyone out of there, and it was the fastest way I could think to do it."

"Explain," could this day get any worse?

His shaking hand runs down his face then massaged his jaw line as he coughed, "Well you know that little problem of ours, it aint so little no more." Bridget's death was replaying itself in Kevin's mind once again as Bethany's chest explodes, letting that thing slither out of it.

Marie's story was starting to make a little more sense to him, with Jim giving birth to one of those things at the crash site, and if what Kevin had just said was true, it would explain the other hostile life form there. He wasn't the smartest person in the universe but he could put two and two together and make bloody four, "How big was it?"

"I don't know, I didn't stand around measuring the damn thing," Kevin barked.

"Take a guess them."

"Eight feet tall I would say," the Major visibly deflates in his chair at this news, "And another one of those things came out of Bethany," another blow to the Major's hopes of getting this thing under control quickly.

No knock at the door this time, just the sound of them sliding open brought everyone attention to the entry way, Edd was slumped at the shoulders as he entered the office. The Major perked up a little upon seeing him, "Doctor, hopefully you have some good news for me," but his hopes were quickly destroyed when he got a good look at his face.

Falling into the chair next to Kevin, he massages his temple as he explained, "Unfortunately I do not, the two patients we attempted to remove the parasites from simultaneously, both died." Everyone in attendance was noticeably shaken, no one more so then Marie whose guilt was now like a knife being driven in to her chest. "I cannot be one hundred percent sure until the results from the blood work comes back, but if I had to guess I would say that it overdosed them on its toxin."

"Jesus Christ," the Major breathed out then collected himself, "So do we have any other suggestions on how to deal with this before any more lives are lost?"

"Yes, the good Doctor and I have considered a few options," he straightened himself up in the chair and cleared his throat. "We are going to try and remove the embryo before it grows to large."

"So surgery," the Major asks and Edd answers his question with a nod, "That sounds like a solid plan, how soon can you begin?"

"The equipment is currently monitoring the patients for any signs of growth in the chest cavity, and we will begin immediately once it is detected." Edd knew, that currently, this was their only option available, but also recalled what the Doctor had told him earlier, "There is one set back however."

The Major didn't like the sound of this, "Explain."

"A surgery like this could take time, because of the position the embryo takes within the host. The other patients might run out of time and become inoperable before we can complete the first operation." He could see that the Major wasn't catching on to what he was trying to say, "The creature employees a series of growths that gather nutrients for the embryo, and if they get into the host major organs they will most certainly die from them."

"What are you trying to say Edd," Kevin asked, a worried look in his eyes.

"That even if we remove the embryos from them, these growths continue to expand and will eventually kill them. We think that cancer treatment might reverse the effects, but I wouldn't hold out hope." Clearing his throat once again, a nervous look upon his face, "We might want to consider offering a humane death for these individuals, for the alternative is a long and painful demise."

"You mean kill them," Marie stated in shock, Edd halfheartedly nods in response.

"But you said that the cancer treatments might undo it," the Major motions with his hands imploringly, "So just give them the shot before you write them off."

"We currently do not have any of that medicine on hand, the Doctor has placed an order for it though, but we all know how long that will take to get here, and they might be long gone before it arrives." He wasn't trying to be cruel, just logical about it, he wanted to save these men just as much as anyone else, but nine months without any treatment could be impossible with such an aggressive strain as this.

"I could put in an emergency request with the company, and have them ship it via a military vessel, they could get it here in a quarter of the time of some commercial vessel," his expression was hopeful, he wanted to at least give the people something on a positive note to this situation.

"Would you do that, it would be a great help, we are also looking into an alternative means of procuring the medicine as well."

He knew that Edd meant he was going through Angela for the supplies and was now glad that he turned a blind eye to her black market dealings, "Good, sounds like you have thought this through, just keep the thoughts of euthanasia to yourself for the time being Doctor. Let's hold out hope that we can save these people for as long as we can, okay." Satisfied that there was still hope for the three remaining patients he turns his attention back to Kevin and Marie, "So do you two have any suggestion on how to deal with our not so little problem?"

Edd cocked a brow to Kevin requesting an explanation, "It's grown," he replied.

"Apparently," the Major interjects, "In the small amount of time since its birth it has grown to be eight feet tall."

"And its super aggressive," Marie adds, Edd took in this new information as he rubbed his chin thinking while the others talked.

"We could trap it in one of the containment unites that processes the planet's atmosphere, then turn it on," Kevin suggests.

Edd was not well versed in how the processing plant actually worked, "Won't the creatures acid damage that part?"

"Probably not, it essentially breaks down the atmosphere atom by atom then rearranges them into a more Earth like state. So anything in there would be shattered at the atomic level and broken down into usable parts or waste." Kevin looked kind of proud of himself for actually getting the chance to teach Edd something, "And even if, by some small chance, it does damage it, the plant can run perfectly fine with one unit down."

"Now to drive it," Marie pondered.

"Most animals are afraid of fire," Edd adds, "So do we have any flame throwers or the means of making some make shift ones?"

"I have a few in the weapons lockers," Marie motioned with her right hand as she spoke.

"And I can make a few more," Kevin added.

The Major nods in agreement to this plan but added, "We should organize in search teams of five to look for this thing in the plant."

"Assuming it's still there," Marie argued.

"It's a possibility that its territorial and would stick to an area unless it's gone out hunting," Edd's ecology knowledge coming in handy once again.

"Alright, so we are in agreement then, we search the plant and drive these things into the containment unit and fry their asses," The group all stated their agreement to the plan, "Get everything ready, then divide the colonist into teams, I leave everything in your capable hands Sargent."

She goes ridged and brings her hand up for a solute, "Sir."

The three of them begin to head out of his office, "Doctor," Edd turns around to look at the man, "Please keep me informed on the patient's condition and assess me on it before we make any rash decisions."

"Whether or not to end their own lives is their choice Major, not yours," his face grew stern at the idea of keeping someone in pain just for the sake of keeping them alive for one more second longer, "But I will keep you in the loop." He exits the office secretly wishing that the door was on a hinge instead of being an automatic sliding door.

Across the complex, within the pins the livestock was being held, a predator stocked its prey from the ceiling of the room. Dropping down it quickly subdued the beast and made off with it, like an ant able to carry many times its weight, the bovine was of little hindrance to it as it ran across the landscape back to its lair. The caretaker who entered the pins a moment later upon hearing the sounds of disturbed cattle noted that ten of the beasts were missing, and made a report to operations about his discovery. With things the way they are, it would take the higher ups sometime before they would hear this disturbing news, and for those with any intellect to catch wind and put the equation together.


	12. To Terrorize Y'awl's Neighborhood

Acheron Chapter 12 - To Terrorize Y'awl's Neighborhood

 **A/N- Alright a little tidbit for you all to chew on, you do not have to be alive to be used as a host for the creature. I'll refer you to the director's cut of the third movie, in which the creature came out of a dead ox.**

The evening was getting late now, it had been two hours since the meeting with the Major and all Kevin's and his crew was able to pull together were ten flamethrowers. The toxicology screen had come back on the two individuals the parasites had killed, and had proven that they were in fact killed with an overdose of the toxin they use to put their victims in a comma. The first growth had also been spotted in one of the hosts, putting Edd and Nazz in a race against the clock to remove it before it was too late, and hopefully still be in time to save the other two survivors.

Now armed with the weapon's Kevin's team had created plus the five that were already in the armory, Sgt. Kanker evenly separated the colonist into fifteen groups. One group to stay at the containment unit to be ready to operate the machine, this group is to be led by Kevin and herself. Four groups placed at key locations to drive the beast in the direction they needed it to go, the other ten were to start at sublevel three and work their way up the facility. Each group was armed with a flamethrower, shotgun, pistol, cattle prod and motion tracker.

Kevin had explained when the teams were divided up that the plant would be fine if it sustained some damage, that systems could be replaced and repaired. The only sensitive location that they were forbidden to us their firearms in would be around the primary heat exchangers, only the flamethrower could be used there. Damaging the cooling system would cause them to have to shut the plant down at best and could be catastrophic at worst, and it would be best not to risk it.

"I don't like this," Angela whispered as she pointed the flamethrower down the dark intersecting corridor.

"I got your back baby girl," Sy reassured her as she guarded their flank with the shotgun.

She took a deep breath to steady her nerves then replied, "I'm a lover not a fighter, Sy."

"Well we can't let this thing roam free," Cory added, "It's already killed one of our own." He was trying to remind her of the urgency of their mission, but only succeeded in reminding her why she didn't want to be there in the first place.

"Great pep talk asshole," she rounded the corner allowing him to sweep the area with the motion tracker.

Turning the tracker left then right down the corridor he pushes the button on his headset, "Junction 28 clear."

"Roger," Sgt. Kanker's voice responded in his ear and then the other teams bean calling in from other junctions.

"I don't trust that thing as far as I can throw it," Angela said looking at the tracker.

"Come on," he replied, "Modern technology at its best."

"Yeah, well Kevin and his team didn't see it coming till it was too late," and she moved forward heading toward the other side of the facility, her nerves still on edge.

A little further down the line Eddy fumbled with the cattle prod in his hand, "How dare he say I'm untrustworthy."

"That ain't what he said Eddy," Lee corrected him, "He said he didn' trust you to not blow a hole in the coolin system."

"Same thing," He waved her off, "This is the Major's revenge for losing all that money at craps last week." Waving the prod in frustration, "He could of at least let me have the flamethrower."

"That was me love," Lee stated as she pointed the flaming weapon down a corridor, "I didn' trust you with it, I mean really, you would probably torch us all because you saw a rat."

Further down Nat and Ed came upon something weird, Nat at point with the flamethrower, motioned for the rest of his team to stop and take cover as best they could. Pushing the button on his headset, "Sgt."

"Go ahead,' was her response.

'We've found something."

"Elaborate, is it the creature."

"I'm pretty sure it is what did this," he pauses as he looked at the substance on the walls a few feet ahead of them, "It looks like."

"Snot that's dried on the walls," Ed interrupted.

"Thank you Ed," Nat replied, "But yeah that. It looks like they're decorating the place to their liking."

Kevin's voice came over the communication channel, "Can you get a sample of it for Eddward?"

"Sure," Nat replied then released the button on his headset, "Sure Kevin, we'll get your man a sample."

Looking at the map she started barking out orders, "All teams move to the next junction and proceed toward team eight's location, let's see if we can encircle their home." She then proceeded to call out what corridor each team was to head down so there would be no confusion, watching their GPS signal on the map move in the desired direction.

Kevin looked at the map as each team began to reach their location and call in to confirm when they hit the strange structure, "That's right under the main cooling towers." It is the place where the steam that had been produced from cooling of the reactor would condense back down into water, releasing all of its heat into the air around the towers, then get sent back to the reactor. Pushing the button on his headset, "Remember only flamethrowers in there, we can't risk a rupture to the cooling system."

When all teams were in place Sgt. Kanker noticed something, "They can still be flanked," she pointed out the big gaping hole in the line between team one and team ten. She made a few adjustments in the line to widen the net, but still worried that there were to many holes for the creatures to escape through. "All teams proceed forward with caution," she called out to them, holding her breath as she waited for someone to call out that they made contact. On one screen she watched the ten groups of five dots as they slowly moved toward the center of the area, on another three screens she monitored the seventy-five life signs of those assigned to the mission. All of them had a higher than normal heart rate, the fifty under the cooling towers had the highest of the group.

"Sgt.," Jimmy called in quietly.

"Go ahead,' she replied.

"We found two cows, they look like they have been cocooned along the walls." Both Sgt. Kanker and Kevin exchanged a look at each other, Kevin quickly switched channels and called operations.

While Sgt. Kanker addressed Jimmy, "What is their condition?"

"Their dead," was his simple reply.

Her voice was full of frustration, "Injuries, are there any injuries?"

Jimmy looked closer at the bovine then noticed it, "Yes, their chests look like they've exploded."

She could see that the heart rates of everyone had spiked with this news, they all knew that this meant that there were two more of those things down here then they had originally thought. Kevin comes over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and whispers, "Ops just reported that there are ten cows missing from the pens."

"Shit," the reality of the situation had just smacked her in the face, "Everyone stay calm." When they started this little venture, they were under the assumption that there were only two of those things down there, now if each of the missing cows had given birth that would make twelve in total. Two would have been rough enough to deal with, and she had hoped that their numbers would overwhelm them, but now that there was possibly ten more down there, she could see that she had just hand delivered them a ripe breeding ground. "I need everyone to turn around, slowly and calmly, and head back the way you came, keep those weapons at the ready and your motion trackers on. Groups one through five converge with the group to your left, groups six through ten the group to your right. Once everyone is accounted for meet up at the service tunnel for evac. All directional teams meet at the tunnel immediately."

Jimmy's teams heart rate's skyrocketed, the man turned around to follow orders to be met by strong hands grabbing ahold of him and a menacing maul opening to ram it's second jaw into his chest. His team had been to petrified by the towering creature to call out to him and ran the instant it was preoccupied with him. On the opposite side of the towers, Ramirez and Thompson ran further into the hive as a creature had descended into the middle of their group capturing Davis, leaving them no other route of escape. Finding themselves in the middle of a small egg field, with a fifteen-foot towering creature standing in the middle who was laying those eggs. They only caught a brief glimpse of this behemoth before they were caught by the parasites the eggs housed.

Lee and Eddy made a mad dash for the stairs as O'Malley was taken, Nat was able to fend off an attack, as the creature charged them, bounding from one wall to the next as it closed the distance between them. A quick jet of flame drove it back to where it came from, with an ungodly scream of agony. Calm and orderly was definitely not the way to describe this retreat, chaotic and a flight for one's own self-preservation would be more like it. Sgt. Kanker watched the monitors as one life sign after another either flat lined or went to nearly nonexistent, five people no eight, now twelve. "Come on Kevin we got to go," she picked up the flamethrower and headed toward the service tunnel.

Angela, Sy, Nat and Ed guarded the stairs as people ran to escape, hopefully ensuring a safe route for them to flee the massacre that was happening down here. Now safely out from under the cooling system all bets were off, and free use of weapons was allowed. Sy reveled in the loud bang and following shriek with each pull of the trigger, these things were hard to kill, one blast at long range was not enough to take one down. But it did make them more cautious of approaching them, as though they were testing their defenses and working out how to get at them.

With the last person up the stairs Sy turned to the other three, "Go," she told them, and followed them going backwards to guard their flank. Half way up the stairs, a slippery little devil bounded off the wall, dodging her shotgun blast and collided with her, slamming her against the opposite wall off the gangplank and suspending her in midair. The impact had knocked the shotgun out of her hands, Angela screams, "NO," when she heard the noise and turned around to see what was happening. Her first instinct was to blast the thing with the flamethrower, but she heard Sy moan and couldn't pull the trigger.

Nat yanks her up the stairs as she screamed Sy's name as the creature ran off with her along the wall, back down to its lair, "She's gone," he bellowed at her. Ed took her flamethrower from her and blasted a plum of flame down the stairs at the creatures, who were scurrying along the walls and up the stairs toward them. Coming up to the main level, they all ran toward the service tunnel, reaching the door Kevin and Sgt. Kanker were guarding, Kevin and Ed blasted fire down the walkway as the last remaining survivors entered the tunnel, then followed them, slamming the pressure door shut behind them, running the distance from the plant to the colony as quickly as they could.

 **A/N- Evil grin, Evil laugh, and we have only just begun, remember to keep your hands in the air and scream.**


	13. And Whosoever Should Be Found

Acheron Chapter 13 – And Whosoever Should Be Found

 **A/N- So that everyone is up to date on the count, we have the queen and the one drone that came from Mr. Jorden. Then a mix of warriors and drones that came from the ten cows, plus the one that came from Bridget's corpse, so thirteen in total at the end of the last chapter. Warriors are distinguished at first glance from drones by the ridges on the domes of their heads, drones have smooth dooms. Warriors are also built for quick agile movements with a tougher exoskeleton then a drone, making them harder to kill and quicker at the hunt.**

As they all ran down the narrow corridor from the Processing Plant to the colony itself they could hear a loud series of bangs coming from the direction they had just came from. Marie opens a channel to operations, as her and Kevin brought up the rear of the group, "Ops, come in ops, this is Sgt. Kanker, put the colony on lock down, I repeat, put the colony on lock down."

The Major gets on the line, "What seems to be the problem Sgt.? I thought you had this thing nipped in the bud by now."

"Sir, recall all personal and close all external hatches, there are more of those things here than we originally thought."

"How's that possible, there aren't any of those eggs down here, and you said you closed off all access to the eggs at the crash site."

The front of the group had reached the colonies pressure door for the service tunnel and were bottle necking to get through, the banging at the other end had stopped, or they were just unable to hear it anymore. "It would be safe to assume that the creatures, growing as fast as they do, waste no time reproducing, and that one or maybe all of them are laying these eggs."

The Major took this new development in and breathed out an inaudible swear word, "Alright you've got two minutes."

A female computerized voice came over the intercoms as yellow strobe lights began to flash, "Emergency, lock down is in progress, you now have two minutes before all bulk heads seal."

The last of the colonist finally got through the pressure door and Kevin and Marie guarded it until it closed. As the remainder of the security team and a few able bodied personal spreads out to make sure that all the major openings were guarded so that nothing could get into the complex. The computerized voice started to count down the last ten seconds, and on zero the bulk heads, pressure doors and metal shutters all closed shut. Everyone let out a momentary sigh of relief, as now there was at least ten inches of metal between them and those things.

Kevin and Marie headed to operations, quickly followed by Ang, Nat, Ed and a few others. Ang storming into the room past Marie, pulling back her hand she smacks the major across the face, causing his head to jerk to the side with the impact. Tears of rage and lose threatening to spill forth as she stared the man down, "Sgt. Remove this woman," the Major called out as he massaged his jaw.

Taking Ang by the shoulders she guides her away from the Major, "It's alright Ang," then turns herself and decks him herself.

"God, damn it will you all stop doing that."

"Ten cows go missing and you don't tell us, what are you some sort of idiot?"

"I didn't," he starts.

"The thing comes out of other living things and you have cows missing, but you couldn't put it together," she shakes her head then looks at Ang, calling her name a few times to get her attention, "How many cows did we have out there."

"Um," she was still reeling from the shock of seeing Sy get taken right in front of her, "Thirty I think."

"That means there are twenty left," she pondered for a moment, "Lumpy, Nat, get a team of twenty together and get rid of the rest of the cattle."

Ed gives her a salute as Nat walks toward the door saying, "Looks like it's steak tonight." Passing off the backpack that contained the sample for Edd over to Kevin, "Give that to your boy," then walks out of the door and down the corridor.

Marie looked to one of the officers at the control desk, "How many people did we lose?"

"Who do you think you are giving orders to my people?" The Major spoke angrily and motioned wildly to the ops crew.

"The woman in charge since you've proven to incompetent to do the job," she walks over to him boldly forcing him to walk backwards. "Arrest me if you must, but until this is all over, sit down and shut up," and she pushes him into a chair.

Turning back to the crewman she motions with her hands telling him she was waiting for the information, "Eighteen life signs are either flatlined or barely there, Ma'am."

Eighteen more potential host she thought, let us just hope they didn't get any more of the cattle. The door slides open behind them and Edd walks in clearly warn out, this day has turned out to be a long one. Marie asks him with stress in her voice, "Do you have any good news for us doctor?"

"The first operation was a success as far as we can tell now, however we will continue to monitor the patient for any signs of growth." He crumbles into a seat next to Ang, "The other two patients are another story, the parasites have already detached and died, and the growths in their chest are well on their way."

"So, there is no hope for them?" Kevin asks from behind him.

"The doctor is in the process of removing the organism from them, but it's the secondary growths that concern us." Turning to Ang he asks, "Were you able to find any of the medicine we requested?"

She thought for a moment recalling her communications with her smuggler friends, "Yes there is one guy who has some, he said he should be able to get here within two days."

"Good, I don't think they could have survived waiting on the Major's delivery to get here,"

"Why," Ang asks softly, her thoughts were on the fact that what these men were facing Sy was also going through right now, but without any help to stop it.

"When I was of no more use to the doctor in an advisory sense, and being no help at all surgically, I went to go study Mr. Jorden's corpse once again." Edd placed his fingers to his temple to massage them, as though thinking right now was hurting him, "It struck me as odd that the growth was still expanding in him even though he was dead and the creature was no longer inside of him. When I opened the cooler in the morgue what I found astonished me, a root like structure was now growing out of his back like it was trying to attach to something. When I did a quick scan of the corpse I found that the growth was now slowly digesting him and sending the nutrients through these roots."

Kevin stands and drops the bag on the table sliding the contents out upon it, "Could this be what it was trying to attach itself to?"

Edd looks at the decent sized specimen on the table, it was a transparent substance, allowing him to see through it, "It looks like it has vessels inside of it, whether they are transporting the nutrients along to some point is unknown, without further study."

"That's very educational doctor, but can it tell you anything useful about the creature," Marie was noticeably frustrated as she tapped out a cigarette from its pack, "Like how best to kill those sons of bitches."

"Unfortunately, no."

Marie lights the cigarette and takes a drag off it and blows the smoke out in his direction, "Then I would suggest redirecting your efforts there," she makes a mock face of surprise, "Or haven't you heard, we're well on our way to being overrun by those bastards."

"I'll get right on that," he stands and turns to head out of the door.

Kevin stops him with a hand grabbing his forearm and looks at him imploringly, "Edd, you need some rest, at least get something to eat."

"I'll be fine," he replied with a look of determination upon his face.

"No doctor, do what your husband says and get some sleep, we need you thinking straight." She then looks at the rest of them, "And I would suggest that everyone else do the same, we'll be setting up an hourly rotation for guard duty. If there are no more concerns, please pass the word on to your neighbors, and I will see you all tomorrow." As the room slowly cleared she received a call over the coms, putting on the headset at the control panel, she responds, "This is the Sgt. go ahead."

"Yeah, boss lady," Nat answered, "We can't get out to the pins from this hatch, they were waiting for us in ambush and they nearly took Big Ed's head off. Could you perhaps do us the favor of checking the other hatches for us."

"Wait one," she punches up the outside camera's and looked around the hatches, sure enough there were two of them at each of the four hatches, watching the entry ways intently. Turning the angel of the camera she looks in the direction of the pens, where another four creatures were busy emptying it of the remaining cattle. "That's a negative Nat, they have guards at each entrance, and as soon as you engage them, they would all be on you within minutes."

"Great so we're trapped like rats in our own home," he replied in exasperated tone.

"Nat."

"Yes ma'am."

"Split your team up and post guards at each hatch, and four sets of three patrolling the halls, then I want you to come to me in forty-five minutes for a roster of the next six shifts."

"Yes ma'am, will do"


	14. Without the Soul for Getting Down

Acheron Chapter 14 – Without the Soul for Getting Down

 **A/N- The creature that is born has knowledge and memories from its host, I would like to point out a few things that support this. The second movie, they knew how to cut the power to the facility and open doors, both demonstrated in the epic ops/med lab showdown scene. The forth movie, the cloned Ripley had memories from her previous life.**

The night was quiet and still, the make shift sentries patrolled the hallways, ensuring all those who slept were safe. Marie sat at the communications terminal and typed in her passcode and waited for the device to acknowledge her. Getting a menu screen asking her what type of communication she needed, scrolling down she touched the emergency priority one icon, giving her direct contact with the company. Typing out a brief description of her issue she waits for someone to pick up on the other end, a man with dark brown hair in a nice suit picks up the line, "Thank you for calling Wayl.."

She cuts him off on his company approved greeting, "Can we skip the formalities, I need to speak to someone higher in the chain of command then a receptionist."

Looking at the information on his screen he asks, "Are you certain there is nothing I can do to help?"

"Unless you can authorize a rescue then no," she replies sharply, frustrated and tired she didn't have the patience to jump through hoops at the moment.

"Thank you for calling again, I'm transferring you now," the screen goes black with the company's logo on it and in little fine print the words transferring please wait.

For ten minutes she waited at that screen, writing out the upcoming shifts rosters, twisting the seat back and forth impatiently. The screen flickers, "Hello, my names Angelica Johnson, I am the lead supervisor at the communications hub, how can I assist you today?" The sandy blonde haired woman had her hair done up in a bun, her black rimmed glasses perched high on her nose wearing an expensive looking black dress suit and a fake smile upon her face.

Marie cleared her throat and then began, "This is the colony of Hadley's Hope on the planet Acheron LV426 in the Zeta II Reticuli star system requesting immediate assistance.'

Ms. Johnson looked over her computer terminal, "All the read outs from your mother unit is showing all systems are nominal in the APP, that your atmosphere is breathable and there is no structural or system damage in the colony complex. What seems to be your issue that requires our assistance?"

"There is this lifeform," Marie starts but was cut off.

"LV426 is an uninhabited world with no life on it," Ms. Johnson's eyes looked cold, as though this entire conversation was pointless, she knew all there was to know about the planet and nothing could change her mind on that.

"Well, I'm telling you there is, there massive with acid for blood and very aggressive," Marie took a breath to calm herself, "We are requesting immediate evac from the closest ship available."

Ms. Johnson clicks through a few scenes on her end, "Unfortunately there are no ships in your area available for such a endeavor."

"Look bitch, we need help and we need it now, we have already lost 23 people to these things, and I don't want to lose no more."

With the name she was called Ms. Johnson stopped all work on her end and stared into the monitor, "All I can do for you is to send your request up the ladder, without the company's authorization I cannot simply divert a cargo or military vessel your way. You should get a reply within eight to ten business days, have a good day." And the screen goes black with the company logo upon it, signaling the end of the transmission.

"Fuuuuuuuck," Marie screams as she pushes herself away from the terminal violently.

A knock at the open door and she turns to look in its direction, waving Nat in, "Trouble in paradise boss lady?"

"Don't ask," she says angrily and picks up a digital pad off the desk and hands it to him, "There's the list for the rotation, get started on waking these individuals up and put Kevin in charge and instruct him on patrols and the rotation."

"Yes ma'am," he walks out of the office with the pad in hand heading toward Kevin's home to wake both him and his husband up. Giving him his instructions Nat bids them a good night and heads to the next room, hoping to get this over with so he could lay his tired bones down for some much-needed sleep.

"Man, why did we even go to sleep," Kevin complained as he stretched his back, "I feel more tired than when we laid down."

"I'll make some coffee," Edd in truth hadn't slept a wink, his thoughts were full of the death of Mr. Jorden and for those poor souls who were now suffering the same fate. Blood spatter and screams of pain was all that filled his mind as he tried to fall asleep, though Kevin was able to fall asleep his dreams were no different. Replaying again and again the events of Bridget's death and the thing that burst its way out of Bethany's chest, his dream morphed into a scene of him leaning over Edd as he screamed in pain, his chest contorting in unnatural ways as he begged for death. He was only spared the moment of his demise by his door bell ringing, bringing him back into consciousness, banishing his nightmarish dream.

Nat continued down the walkway toward the next door on the roster list, stopping for a moment, he thought he heard a noise from behind him, looking down the hallway he sees no one. No sentry, no Edd or Kevin coming out of their quarters, not a god damn thing that could have caused the small clang he thought he heard. He must be more tired than he thought and was hearing things he told himself as he turned back around to continue to the next door. Stopping in front of the doorway he reaches out and pushes the button to ring their doorbell, standing there a few moments humming to himself as he rocked back and forth on his heels to his toes. Pushing the button again he looks down the hall to his left counting how many doors were left before he could call it a day and get some rest.

There was the clang again, and it sounded like it came from the direction he was looking in, but there was no movement from that way either. Something grabs his shoulder causing him to jump a foot in the air, "Hey Nat," Big Ed says.

"Jesus Christ man, don't do that," Nat was breathing hard trying to slow his heart beat down, looking up he sees that Ed had a piece of gauze tapped to his check where he had just come from the med lab having the deep gash stitched.

"Sorry," he said in his child like innocent way, Nat reaches up and taps the doorbell once again, "No answer?"

"No," Nat hummed, "And Jacob is normally a light sleeper." He tried once more and waits a few seconds, then taps his communication device in his ear, "Control, I need an emergency override for Jacob Moore's door."

"Roger, give me just a moment," The female voice replies.

Nat readies his flamethrower, just in case one of those nasties had found their way in. The light on the panel that was red turned green and the door slides open quietly allowing them to see the inside of the man's room. Slowly he walks in with Ed close behind him, the lights turn on automatically when they detect his movement, everything looked normal in the main room and Nat calls out, "Jacob? You there?" No reply, "Don't do this to me man, if your there let me know."

"Yeah," Ed added, "Don't just come jumping out, Nat might roast ya."

Still no reply to their calls, Nat looks around the corner into the bathroom, no sign of anyone or of any struggle. Walking a few steps forward they reached the bedroom's door and they both stayed close to the wall, their hearts pumping as they both wondered what they would find when they rounded the corner. Counting down from three with his fingers, Nat took deep breaths, readied the flamethrower once again and turned the corner. Finding the room empty, one of the tiles on the ceiling removed and the bed in disarray, touching the button on his earpiece once again, "Control, locate Jacob Moore's PDT."

"Stand by," the woman on the other side replied, "That's strange."

"What," he said as they began to walk out of the room slowly.

"It appears as though he is headed down the service tunnel to the APP."

His voice was filled with concern, "Why the hell would he be doing that? Is the pressure door closed now?"

"Yes it is," Nat knew that Jacob's eldest son had been one of the people who had been captured in the failed raid and was wondering if he might be doing something really stupid right now.

"Is the APP entrance open?"

"Yes."

"Seal it," he all but hollered at the poor woman.

"I can't, it appears to be nonfunctional at this end."

A scream at the other end of the corridor and they bolt down the hall, stopping in front of the door, "Open the Conner's door," he bellowed.

"One moment," she replied in a frazzled voice.

The light goes green and the door slides open and in the corner of the room stood a very frightened Mrs. Conner, her husband lying dead on the floor, blood pooling out of his body. In front of Mrs. Conner stood one of the eight foot beasts, toying with her, as though it was enjoying the fear she was going through, it's tail slowly sliding between her legs. "Debby, get out of the way," Nat yelled and motioned with his arm, but she stood their petrified.

The creature hearing the noise, turns and sees the two of them, forgets about the frightened woman and bounds over the kitchen islander toward them. Clinging to the wall it aims then jumps and Nat lets lose a blast from the flamethrower causing it to screech in pain, its limbs flailing as it came tumbling toward them. Dodging it's landing, he blasts it again as it lay on the floor, another scream of pain and it runs, hurt and probably doomed to die, down the corridor toward the pressure door.

Tapping his earpiece, "Control we have a problem, sound the alarm and get everyone up to ops stat." The alarm sounded and the strobes started to flash as the female voice of the officer on duty came over the PA alerting the public where they needed to go.


	15. Must Stand and Face the Hounds of Hell

Acheron Chapter 15 – Must Stand and Face the Hounds of Hell

 **A/N- The safety is now coming off, all those lovable characters you all enjoy are now fair game, just thought I would warn you. May God have mercy upon their souls, in nominee patris et filii et spiritus sancti, Amen. Side note there will be 51 aliens once all the bovine give birth.**

With the warning alarms blaring, the colony was rudely awakened from their short rest, some to a monstrous sight entering their rooms, a few to already missing loved ones who were snatched from their beds. Those who were not already in danger ran into the halls and down the corridor towards operations, as a few of the creatures came out of an open air duct to chase after them. Running along the ceiling, screeching and hissing at their prey as they ran them down, tackling the stragglers to the ground, immobilizing them and carrying them with ease back into the duct system. Nat and Ed along with two others stood guard in the second floor corridor that led toward operations, Nat now brandishing a shotgun instead of the flamethrower, taking aim and firing at the insect like creatures that ran along the ceiling. Doing what they could to protect those who fled for their lives away from the carnage that ensued around them, their nerves on edge with each scream that came echoing down the halls.

Edd and Kevin with three others stood sentry on the first floor next to the stairwell at the other end, with the last visible survivors now behind them both groups of men picked up the flamethrowers beside them and let out a fiery stream down the halls. Screams of pain came from the grotesque creatures as the wave of heat and flame came roaring down the halls at them, causing them to scatter for safety, then regroup and try again. For ten minutes they tried to pass the wall of flames that blocked their path, for ten minutes the men were able to stave off their approach. Slowly Nat began to notice the creatures falling back on the second floor as did Edd on the first floor. Nat points the barrel of his weapon to the floor and calls out to his rattled friend who was still firing jets of flame down the hall, "That's enough big guy, their gone." Slowly Ed released the trigger, "That's it, calm down," Ed points the barrel to the floor, "Come on let's get back. Signaling for the other two men to stand watch Nat and Ed walked toward the door to operations as Kevin and Edd walked up the stairs at the far end of the hall.

It happened quicker than anyone could see, one second Nat was standing next to Ed as they walked toward operations, the next he was being snatched up into the air vent above him. "Nat," Ed screamed as he reached up for his friends kicking legs. Dropping to the floor as they disappeared into the vent and out of sight, his screams for help the last thing that was heard from him before going quiet. With his shotgun pointed at the hole in the ceiling Kevin led the way to where Ed was collapsed on the floor shaking.

"Come on, get up," Edd bellows at the tall man as he tugged on his arm to elicited a reaction from him. The man was in shock, that could have been him easily, if he had been standing six inches to the right he would now be in that vent instead of Nat. Pulling his hand back Edd smacks the man across the cheek, "Get the fuck up," Ed blinked at the pain and looked around, seeing Kevin standing with his weapon pointed at the ceiling Edd imploring him to move. Getting to his feet he obliged the young doctor and ran for the relative safety of the operations room, followed close by his two saviors.

During the panic, two individuals who had been cut off from joining everyone else were now heading in the opposite direction toward an exterior hatch. Hitting the wall beside the door, Lee asks, "Eddy, what the fuck are we doing?"

"Getting the hell out of her, doll," he said as he entered his access code to open the door, "Fuck this shit, and fuck this place, let them deal with it."

"I don't know Eddy," the lady was trembling as the door slide open, "They may have a plan."

"Plan, each one of their plans have gone to shit," he looked around the landscape and did not see anything moving, good as he thought all those things were in here. "Trust me, I'll keep you safe."

He grabs her hand and pulls her out the door and into the open world, "At least close the door," she said yanking her hand out of his and hitting the button to seal the entrance. Running they made their way toward the landing platform, coming to the back hatch of the shuttle Eddy punches a few buttons on the panel beside the hatch and the gangplank lowers. "How do you have that code?"

"With the right amount of money, you can get anything doll face," he said and smiled reassuringly at her. Climbing up the ramp once it had descended, he pushes the button to close the hatch and the two of them walk up to the front of the shuttle.

Closing the door to the cockpit, he sits in the piolets seat and starts engaging the engines, "You never told me you knew how to fly one of these things," Lee sits in the seat next to his.

"I use to do some smuggling back when I was younger," a red light catches his attention, "That's funny."

"What?"

"Nothing major, but could you go back and make sure the ramp is closed," he could have sworn he closed it.

"Sure, anything else you want while I'm gone? Coffee? Cigarettes?" She stands once he waved off her smart ass comment and exits the cockpit heading toward the halfway opened hatch, pushing the close button again the ramp seals.

Up in operations, the survivors were licking their proverbial wounds, "How many did we lose?" Marie leans over the console that displayed the PTD information as the officer on duty got a confirmation on how many dead or near dead the display now showed.

"Twenty-five ma'am."

"Damn," she breathed out as she could hear a mother asking behind her if anyone has seen her child, Timmy, as other colonist mourned their lost loved ones.

"Ma'am," her attention was brought to the com's officer, "We have an unauthorized departure of the shuttle."

"Patch me in," she ordered and the officer opened a channel.

Aboard the shuttle Eddy had just gotten the bird into the air and was now flipping a few of the switches, priming the engines to break the gravity of the planet and achieve orbit. "This is Hadley's Hope calling the shuttle Tiberius, come in Tiberius," Marie's voice came over the communications channel.

"Fuck you," he said closing the channel and flipping on the internal PA, "Lee, get up here and strap in." No response, "Lee," the door behind him slides open and the beast was upon him before he even knew what had hit him, knocking the controls out of his hands.

In the complex, they watched as the shuttle traveled away from them, suddenly lurched its nose down and tilted to the side, slamming against a rocky outcropping, tumbling in a fiery hep of metal and detonating a half mile out. "God Damnit," Marie yelled as she kicked a nearby chair out of her way, "Close the shutters."

"Well that's fucking great," Rogers says harshly with a noticeable undertone of fear in his voice.

"And what were you planning on doing with it?" Stevens asks, "Leave us behind like they tried to do?"

"No, but we could have used it to move to the other side of the planet," he replied in an irritated tone.

"And do what, starve as we wait for a rescue that is probably not coming?" The room erupts in a clamor as they all wondered if they were going to get any help from the company that put them there.

"Shut the fuck up," Marie screamed over the noise, "All of you."

"Why haven't you contacted someone for help," one person asked, and others joined in, asking the same question.

"I have contacted the company, and they are trying to find a ship close by to send our way," she didn't want to lie to them, but she also didn't want them despairing on their plight either. Several of them asked how long that was going to take, "They said it might take some time."

"Time ain't something we got sister," a visibly shaken Ed stated, and the look in her eyes agreed with him.

"What's done is done," was she really saying this, "What we need to do now is come up with a way to outlast them until help arrives."

Kevin comes up to her and whispers in her ear, "I don't want to add to the pile of shit you have to deal with."

"Just spill it already," she replied noticeably irritated and turns away from the colonist.

"The flamethrowers are almost out of fuel, and I agree we need to figure out how best to secure our location," his voice was determined and trying to stay calm for her sake.

"Where's the extra fuel containers?"

"The supply depot, in the garage, along with the welding equipment we'll need," her eyes told him that she understood the situation they found themselves to be in.

"Fuck," she was just as much to blame for not counting on the creatures getting into the complex, but now they were facing a threat in their very home with barely any ammo left. "Alright we need to put a small team together to get what we need," turning around she spots the person she needed, "Ang," and waves her over. When the woman joined them, she looks her in the eyes as she spoke, "We need you to put a list together of anything we might need that is in the depot."

"Welding, ammo and explosives of any kind," Kevin added.

"And anything else you might spot that we might need," Marie continued, "But keep the list small, we're only sending out a few people."

"Alright I'm on it," she turns and walks away picking up a data pad she sits and beings her work.

"Now to get volunteers," Kevin stated.

"It'll probably be best to do it by lottery, I don't think anyone is going to volunteer for this," she looks the red head in the eyes, "Exclude yourself from it, I need you here to help plan out our defenses." The two of them turn back around and she gives a short speech to the remaining colonist, explaining the situation to them, and their need to go and get the supplies that they required. That they would be drawing from a lottery to decide who would be going to the garage, but that the lottery would be excluding Nazz, herself and Kevin due to certain needs. This exclusion was met with opposition and downright decent from a few of the colonist who thought all should be included. "Nazz is our only doctor, and will not be put in jeopardy, and as for me and Kevin, we will be working over the floor plans while the supplies are being gathered, so that we can get this place secured once they return." She stares sternly at the group who had issue with the exclusion, "You have anything else you want to bitch about," they did not respond, but instead wilted under her gaze. "Good, now put your name in the fucking hat so we can get this shit started."

With everyone's names upon slips of paper, she drew out ten of them from the hat, Edd was the third name drawn, Big Ed was the fifth called, Major Hadley was the eight and Ang took the place of the last person drawn. She volunteered because she knew where everything was, and that knowledge would speed this little mission up considerably. With the names drawn, the team assembled and geared up with the list in hand they were ready to make their three-hundred-and-fifty-meter round trip journey in what now felt like cramped dark unfamiliar corridors.


	16. And Rot Inside a Corpse's Shell

Acheron Chapter 16 – And Rot Inside a Corpse's Shell

 **A/N- There will be 76 Aliens once those caught from the last chapter give birth.**

The ten individuals who were chosen by the lottery geared up and Kevin helped Edd slide on his empty backpack, "You be careful out their babe." The red heads voice was filled with concern for the love of his life.

"You should worry more for those things safety than mine," Edd said jokingly as he picked up the flamethrower, putting the harness over his shoulder.

Kevin halfheartedly smiled at his dorky husband as he turned to face him, "I'll say a little prayer for them then," and he kissed the top of his head.

Edd's fear started to get the better of him and he reaches up and grabs the back of Kevin's neck pulling him in for a passionate kiss, one that might be his last. Only breaking the kiss long enough to say, "I love you."

Kevin replied in a shaky voice, "I love you more," and kisses him again.

Not wanting to break up this sad farewell but knowing they needed to get this show on the road, Ang says in a low sad voice, "Come on lover boy, it's time to go."

He breaks the kiss, "Don't worry," then caresses Kevin's cheek, "I'll be right back."

"I'll hold you to that," Kevin replied as Edd stepped away, dragging his hand down his cheek and along his outstretched arm, a dread falling over him once their fingers stopped touching each other. He watched from where he stood as Edd turned and made his way to the door. Getting one final look at those blue eyes he loved so much when Edd turned to look over his shoulder at him one last time before stepping through that door. Kevin never thought that the sound of a door sealing shut could sound so ominous until his husband was on the other side of it rushing off into certain danger. He broke his gaze from the metal entryway when Marie called him over to the command table to start planning their defenses.

Once outside the door the group looked in the direction that they needed to go in and they all took a deep breath. Though the corridor was lit normally, they all had a feeling of dread as they gazed down the empty passageway. As though every shadow in every corner could potentially have something hidden in it, awaiting some unsuspecting person to pass by so it could strike. Steeling their resolve for what needed to be done, Ang and Edd took point, motioning for the others to follow them. Slowly passing the guards in the hall they made their way down the corridor, being mindful of any overhead ventilation ducks they came across, hugging the walls to the right and left, keeping their weapons pointed at the openings.

Coming to the desired intersection, they all kept their backs against the left wall, Edd noticed that Major Hadley's breathing was labored and shaking. "Take deep, slow breathes," he whispered to the man who did his best to comply, then he looked at the other seven people, they were all noticeably frightened but doing their best to contain it.

Ang peeks around the corner with her weapon at the ready, seeing a clear short hallway that would lead them to the hatch that would give them entry to the enclosed bridge that would take them to east module. Motioning with her hand, she let them know it was clear to proceed and she pushes away from the wall to walk around the corner cautiously. As quickly as they could while remaining silent, they closed the distance to the hatch, slamming her back against the wall next to the control panel Ang waited for Samuels and Davis to point their weapons at the door. Once they were in position and ready she slams her hand on the button causing the doors to slide open, revealing the one-and-a-half-meter wide walkway that was the enclosed bridge. Twenty meters long she though, that's not very far, that's just a little under a quarter of a football field, no problem, she's done it every day since she's lived here. The bridge had three small glass windows on either side to look out of, a feature that would be more enjoyable once the planet started having plant life growing on it, now not so much.

Taking the first steps they began their walk across the cramped space at a moderate pace, trying to keep their noise to a minimum. Hearing soft thudding coming from above them, "What is that?" Ang whispered.

"It always makes that noise when the wind picks up," Thomas from the maintenance team states, "The outside metal is buckling under the force."

"That's funny," Big Ed says as he was looking out of one of the windows, "Because the winds not blowing." All turned their heads toward a nearby window to confirm the man's findings, a hand smashing through the window that Ed was by, barely missing the man. The creature struggling to try and squeeze in through the tiny opening as it hissed at them, its second jaw extended menacingly, but though it tried it could not fit. Ed blasted it with a burst from his weapon causing it to flee the opening.

"Run," Ang yelled at the man who was still standing there blasting the small window with flames, everyone else had already gotten the idea and were now opening the door on the other end with no thought for safety. Lucky for them there was nothing waiting on the other side of that door to greet them with open arms and a powerful maul. They ran down the hall and turned the next corner still with no precaution, forgetting to mind their noise they made haste down the stairs and a past the casino toward the garage.

Entering the giant door at the end of the hall the Major started barking orders, "You six, hand over your packs and fan out, Samuels and Thomas take the left, Davis and Ramirez the center Monroe and Kutcher take the right." Realization hit that they had been way to loud getting here on the last half of their trip, "Try and stay quiet, and keep your eyes peeled."

The two Edd's and Ang took the packs and headed into the supply room cautiously, for the room was dark as they stepped in but was quickly changed as the sensor brought up the illumination. The room being clear they started, "We need to make this quick," Edd stated, "Though it couldn't get to us, it won't stop it from telling its friends where we are." Ang was already aware of that and started pointing out the bins that held MRE's were in for Ed to start filling four of the packs with. Edd and herself started with the ammo filling two packs with the canisters for the flamethrowers and one with the shotgun shells then moved on to the small hand held welding torches in another and a ample supply of survey charges in another.

Though they knew they need to keep the noise down, their nerves at the quick encounter and the possibility of more to come was driving them to work fast, which meant noisy. Ed rushed to stuff MRE's into the packs, the metal cylinders for the flamethrowers were clanging together as they were shoved in packs. Plastic crunched and metals clangs and attention was being drawn, "What's taking so long," the Major hissed as he entered the room. A scream from outside and the sound of a weapon going off, the clang of that weapon hitting the floor, then silence outside. The five remaining sentries out in the garage had quickly found hiding places out of fear, as did the four in the supply room.

 **As the creature stalks its prey I thought I might give you some commentary upon the means and ways it hunts.**

Samuels is drug out from his hiding place under and ATV, he screams as he is lifted off his feet into the air. Points his shotgun at the head of the beast only to have it quickly knocked away and toward the supply room door. A quick jab to the chest by the second jaw and he was gone.

 **The creature hunts by all the usual functions that we view our surroundings by, sight, sound, smell, touch and taste.**

Ramirez was snatched up from his position crouched behind an ATV wheel, pulled up by his head to the top of the vehicle, and was impaled by the creatures spear like tail as he struggled to free himself.

 **Its sight runs the normal spectrum as we see it, but it does have the added advantage of seeing heat signatures like some snakes on earth do.**

Monroe was chased down and slaughtered as he tried to make a run for the door. The creature snagging his foot as he was mere feet away from it, dragging him back by the ankle, finishing him with a jaw to the chest.

 **It's hearing is very acute, and it has more than two ear canals, its multiple ears run along the base of the doom on its head, giving it 360-degree accuracy in the direction a noise comes from.**

Davis was the only one hunting the beast, with each scream he would rush to the location to try and help them before it was too late, only to find a bloody corpse at the spot. The creature so enjoyed this little game of cat and mouse, but the time for games was over and it made quick work of its advisory as it ran past slicing his throat with its claws.

 **It's sense of smell is not only connected to its nose, but to its mouth, much like a snake again it can taste your smell in the air. Not only your body odor, which we all have regardless of how well you wash, but your pheromones as well.**

Thomas lay whimpering in the back of an ATV as it slowly crawled its way inside to get to its prey. Enjoying the sweet smell of fear that was emanating from her as it teased her with hisses and screeches, as it crawled its way toward her. Ending her life slowly to savor the moment.

 **Their cruelty is only matched by their intellect and problem solving abilities, a Queen is said to have an Einstein like intelligence.**

As Davis died and the creature stalked Thomas, the four in the supply room were busy getting ready to run for it, each of them strapping on two packs, Big Ed carrying three. But Ang had peeked over the counter and had spotted how quickly it had run down Monroe as he tried to make his way to the door, and these supplies were needed. She hands over her two packs and weapon and snatches something off the nearby shelf, "Run," she harshly whispered and exits the room as Edd tried to stop her. She sprints towards the far corner away from the door screaming as she tore open the package in her hand, flipping a switch and arming the weapon.

The Major sees the creature exiting the ATV and making its way towards her, he yanks Edd to his feet and out of the supply room door, Big Ed on their heels as they made their way toward the main door of the garage, picking up the discarded shotgun on his way.

In the far corner and with nowhere to run, she held onto the little remote in her hand, the device tucked in her jacket, "Come and get me you son of a bitch," she screams out in anger. As it pounced and collided with her, she pushes the button setting off the charge in her jacket, the subsequent explosion rocked the room, causing the three men who had just exited to stumble. Getting to their feet again they ran with all their might, labored and laden with supplies they were not moving as fast as any of them wanted. Making their way across the bridge once again they could hear the pounding of many feet upon the ceiling, fearing that one of them might drop down through the thinner metal at any minute, dooming the entire colony if these supplies didn't make it.

Big Ed had to drag the Major back up on his feet as he had stumbled, "Get your ass moving you piece of shit," he barked. His fear over taking him, the adrenaline pumping through his veins he could have easily fireman carried the man.

Rounding the last corner Edd had to yell in a labored voice, fighting his burning lungs to make the sound, "It's use, don't fire." The two guards lowered their weapons so they could pass, but kept them at the ready for whatever might be following them.

The three of them collapsing on the floor once they entered operations, Kevin running over to give Edd a big hug, crying into his shoulder as he held the man. When he had heard the explosion from the garage, his heart had told him the worse had happened and that Edd would never be coming back. Now holding him in his arms his heart could not stop the flow of tears that ran down his face with the joy that his love was still alive.


	17. The Foulest Stench is in the Air

Acheron Chapter 17 -The Foulest Stench is in the Air

With the supplies in hand the plan that Kevin and Marie had devised was put into motion. Thought they would like to, they could not seal off the air ducts to the area they were occupying. Since the facility was meant to be air tight, and each room a safe haven in case of a hull breach, they would be doing nothing more than cutting off their own oxygen supply. Barricades were ordered to be erected in the main corridors of the second and first floor, but to leave one entry point unblocked in case they needed to send more people out for supplies. The food they had gotten was a decent amount, but would not feed them all for long, and to close themselves off totally would only ensure their starvation. Survey charges were placed along this corridor, to be remotely detonated in case of attack from this direction, along with ten guards posted to stand sentry at all times.

By this time everyone was exhausted from lack of sleep and their fear of an impending attack from the creatures. But still they persevered, lifting and moving heavy furniture from nearby offices and homes to block up the corridors, welding the barracked together as best they could to reinforce the structure, hoping it would hold up against an assault. Hoping to force the creature into the mined chock point on the lower level. It took them almost three hours to complete the project with everyone's help, as the children slept peacefully in a room tat adjoined operations, the furthest one from the corridor, to ensure that the noise wouldn't wake them.

With their fortifications up, the majority of the colonist tried once again to find a comfortable spot on the floor to catch a few more hours of sleep, for exhaustion would not help their odes when it came time to fight. Parents lay with their children, lovers side by side. With the unknown looming over their heads, everyone was trying to get those last moments of bonding and affection before the inevitable storm hit, but all were still holding out hope that a rescue ship was on it's way.

"Do you need anything else?" Kevin asked as he rubbed his eyes, sleep beckoning him to join Edd on the floor, "If not I'm going to go catch some Z's."

"You do that," Marie answered him flatly.

"How long has it been since you've slept?"

"I'm fine, I can last a little longer," she took a sip of her coffee and tried to double check that they had all their bases covered.

"Get some rest while you can, we can't have you falling out on us when we need you the most." Stepping away he calls out, "Well goodnight," over his shoulder and made his way over to Edd who was cuddling up with Kipper in a corner of the of the room next to the dog carrier.

Shimming his way behind the man he loved, he wrapped his arm around him, giving the dog a gentle pet on the head when he lifted his head to look at him. Rolling over Edd groans into his chest, "My head hurts."

"It's from the exhaustion," he gently massages the back of his neck, "Get some sleep and you'll feel better."

Sitting up he rubs his temples, "I'm going to see if Nazz has any aspirin she can spare."

He pulls the dog in close to him as Edd stood up, "Ok, I'll be right here," and watched as Edd walked away, petting Kipper between the ears to make sure he didn't try and follow Edd out the door.

Entering the med lab through the adjoining door in operations Edd could hear a conversation that Dr. Van Bartonschmeer was having with someone. The voice that was replying to her seemed digitized, telling him she was having a long-distance communication with someone. At first, he didn't want to interrupt her or eavesdrop on the conversation, but it was the nature of what she was saying that caught his attention. "The species is exactly what you were looking for Mr. Burke, aggressive, intelligent, and most importantly easily deployable. With just one egg you can take out an entire colony in a matter of days, nuke the site to clear the infestation and claim disaster."

"Good, how soon before the rest of the colonist are infected, do you think?"

"Twenty-four hours at most sir."

"And your certain the creatures will ignore your presence?"

"I am ninety-five percent sure that I will go unnoticed as long as I am not perceived as a threat," Edd peeks around the corner with his back against the wall to see her looking down at the console. "They only seem to be interested in organic life they can impregnate."

"Alright, make sure you stay under their radar, keep the samples you have ready for extraction, we should be there within two months to retrieve them, Burke out."

The light that was reflecting off her face goes off, letting Edd know that the screen had gone black, "I hope you heard all that you needed to Doctor," Nazz said as she looked up from the console.

Edd's heart started to beat rapidly in his chest now that he was discovered, "I did," he called out from his hiding place.

"Good, we wouldn't want you to be misinformed about anything," her voice still sounded far away from him.

"You know they will never let you get away with this," he took a step toward the door to operations, sliding against the wall.

"They will never find out," she whispered in his ear, holy shit how did she get so close so quickly without making a sound. With lightning speed she grabs him by the neck, he was surprised by the force in which she was holding him with, struggling in vain against her grip. She lifts him off his feet and throws him into the room with one arm, slamming his back against the desk, "They will think that you came in here looking for whatever it was you needed, tripped over your own feet and fell, hitting your head against the counter, dying instantly." He coughed as he tried to bring air back into his lungs as she walked toward him, "One of the side effects of exhaustion is the loss of balance and coordination."

She leans down and picks him up off the floor with one hand, "You're insane," he bellows as he is lifted off of his feet easily.

"I will be so grief stricken, having watched a dear college of mine die right in front of me, I wonder if Kevin and I will console each other before the end," she smirks devilishly at him.

"You fucking bitch," Edd kicked and swung at her wildly with no affect, she reaches up with her other hand to turn him around to face the desk.

"Say goodnight Doctor," he felt her pulling him backward, reading to slam his face against the edge of the counter. A war cry came from behind them and draws her attention, turning her head she only catches a glimpse of the fire extinguisher that slammed against her face. She drops Edd to the floor as she tumbles to the ground, unnatural mechanical sounds emanating from her body as she convulsed on the floor, a spirt of white liquid shooting out of the wound on her head.

The body righted itself and begins to get up once again, her head turned in an unnatural way, she lunges toward him and another blow to the head with the fire extinguisher sending her to the floor again. Kevin continued his assault on the android until it stopped moving and laid still upon the floor. Collapsing beside Edd, his breathing was labored, he wastes no time to turn toward him to begin checking him for injuries, "You alright?"

"No serious damage was done," he replied as he rubbed his neck where she had gripped him.

Hearing the commotion of Kevin's relentless assault upon the machine through the air ducts, Marie and several others come running into the med lab. Stopping in their tracks once they saw the body on the floor in a pool of white ooze, "What the fuck happened?"

"She was trying to kill Edd," Kevin replied as he comforted his love.

Edd coughed a few times as he was trying to get the sting out of his throat, "The company knows everything, she's been in communication with them this whole time." He paused as he breathed in a few more times, "There is no help coming for us, they only want the creatures and won't come till we're all dead."

Marie was skeptical, hell who wouldn't be when you find out that your employer wants you dead for a little profit, "How do you know all this?"

"I overheard her conversation with some corporate flunky, that's why she tried to kill me, to keep it a secret."

Marie collapses in a nearby chair, her hopes that even though the woman she had talked to before had been a complete bitch to her, that help was on the way. Now the reality of it all was sinking in and all she could say was, "Shit."

"You got to be joking, there's no way they would just leave us here to die," Mrs. Jorden said as she stood by Marie.

"Perhaps you don't get it," Kevin said roughly, "But they don't give two shits about us."

"We're nothing more than a petri dish to them," Edd added and stood going to the console to try and unlock Nazz's files, to see the extent of how fucked they really were.

Marie stands a moment later and joins him, using her security code to override the password encrypting her files. Inside detailed all that the company had ordered Nazz to do, she was to ensure that the beast was born, study and report back her findings, make sure the colony did not survive the assault, collect and preserve a sample at all cost. "Mother fuckers," Marie screamed as the proof of what they were doing was now before her eyes, when Burke arrived at the facility two months later his first priority was to wipe those files clean.

Running back into operations, Marie pulled up the long-range communications program and selected the emergency channel, only to get the message that no connection was available. Trying a standard channel, she got the same message, as with the next one and the next, they had been effectively cut off from the rest of the universe by those greedy sons of bitches. Left to rot on this god forsaken rock in the ass end of space, with no way to even get ahold of any nearby ships for assistance.

 **A/N- Military vessels move at a fast speed then commercial vessels, a cargo ship will take ten months to reach LV426 from earth but a military vessel can make it in two.**


	18. The Funk of Forty Thousand Years

Acheron Chapter 18 – The Funk of Forty Thousand Years

 **I'm sorry for the delay, but I took a vacation from work and decided to do some veg'ing in front of my PS4 and recharge my preverbal batteries. I hope you all have caught the latest installment of the series that came out this past weekend, I know I did.**

With every hunter that has an instinctual drive, comes the knowledge that the weaker of the prey is the easiest to catch, the strong preying upon the weak as we would say. Wolves on earth have been targeting the old and infirmed for millennia, Orca have been hunting down infant humpback whales for their food since they have existed. Straggler's from the herd are pushed into a corner and taken down, it is just the way of things, it is only a logical means to an end, a means of survival. Sure, the strong and healthy would make for a finer kill, with better meat upon their bones to feed the pack, but the trouble to bring them down outweighs the benefit of doing so. So instinct tells them to go after the easier of the prey first, the stronger to save for last.

It is with this in mind, that I must insist that this chapter might be hard for some to handle, even if I don't go into grand detail, after all the colony was made up originally of fifty to sixty families. And families include children and grandparents, not just the twenty to thirty something adults that we think of and that Hollywood pushes upon us. These inhabitants range anywhere in age, from the infant that is crying in the corner, being soothed by her father, her mother lost in the first attack. To the elderly couple huddled together upon the couch in the Major's office, reassuring each other on how much they loved one another, and that they would make it through this and that they would see their grandkids on earth again.

"I can't fucking believe this," Marie exclaimed as she stood up from the communications station, "Who the fuck do they think they are?"

"A multi-trillion-dollar company that has their finger's in a lot of pies," Edd answered her, "We're the bottom of the food chain here, literally."

"Surely someone will come look for us," Mrs. Jorden purposed, "Our families on earth will wonder why they haven't heard from us."

Kevin had been standing their stoic for a good moment, taking in their situation, breaking his chain of thought to reply, "Yes, our families will be wondering what has happened to us, but who do you think they will go to first." He looked to each of them, "The company, and all they will get is some bull shit technical issue with communications to our sector as a convenient excuse."

Edd adds, "And if what Nazz said to the suite was their true intention, they will come in, get their sample, nuke the place and blame the reactor." He looks toward his husband, "Probably pinning the blame on Kevin, saying something went wrong with the refit he oversaw, and thus leaving no evidence of what really happened here."

"But the military wouldn't help them cover this up," Mrs. Jorden was still looking for hope, since the military are the ones in charge of nuclear weapons.

"They own the military," Marie shot that hope down with her own nuke. "And if they are trying to get one of these things then it's for the military, so of course they are going to help cover it up." Mrs. Jorden sinks into a nearby chair, looking as though she was about to break down, all she could think about was her two children Timmy and Newt.

The ear piece Marie was wearing in her right ear draws her attention, "Sgt. we have a problem," it was hard to make the man out, there was gun fire on his end of the line.

An explosion was heard letting Marie Know that they had set off a charge in the corridor, "Briggs, come in Briggs."

She did not get a direct reply from the man just some gibberish as he directed the others, "Don't use the explosives until they're in the hall," or "Stand your ground."

She grabbed her rifle and headed toward the door, followed closely by Kevin, Edd snatching up a half full flamethrower, "Babe wait here."

"No! I'm coming with you," Kevin could see the determination on Edd's face and didn't have the heart to continue to argue that he thought he would be safer waiting here. They followed Marie down the hall as she directed others who were armed to make their way to the open corridor. Another series of explosions could be heard as they made their way to the open corridor, this set that were in intervals of ten seconds apart. Reaching the junction, she directs Kevin and Edd along with two others to guard their flank just in case these sneaky bastards have found a way around them, then she takes her position behind the makeshift defensive position of large storage crates. "What's the situation Briggs," she calls out as she looks down the hall, pointing her weapon at the group of twenty that were at the other end, sticking low to the ground and to the shadows, some on the walls some on the ceiling, a few dead on the ground.

"They came out of nowhere and rushed us, and this dip shit here," he points to the guy to his left, "Detonates the first round of explosives to soon, only injuring the front two. Since then they have been staying far enough away it's hard for us to get a good shot at them, only a two have come at us since."

She snatches the remote from him, "You fool, they have been testing the defenses, trying to see if there are any more traps." She sees two more lining up to charge, "Make them think we are all out of tricks, use only your rifles, no flamethrowers, lure them in." The two charge and the group lays into them with gunfire, finally dropping the beasts just before they were able to reach them. The next two charge a short time later, dodging as they came down the hall, in a zig zag pattern, using all four surfaces of the corridor to make it hard for them to be able to hit them. Marie having to push them back by resorting to using the flamethrowers at the last second, sending a jet of flame down the hall, it was either that or allow them to break the line.

After this attempt, one of the beast's roars, rallying the troops with its war cry, _"_ _That must be their leader,"_ Marie thought to herself and armed the rest of the bombs. The alpha leaps forward, leading his pack into combat, Marie flips the safety cover up and readies her thumb to push the button. But the alpha sees what she was doing and stops in its tracks hissing, causing the rest of the pack to halt as well, taking up a defensive posture once again.

Now to hit rewind, as the door in operations closed behind Edd and the group of armed men and woman made their way to the corridor to assist in its defense. The huddled masses prayed for deliverance from the plight they found themselves in, hoping that the Sergeant would be able to defend them from the onslaught that was knocking at their door. As I stated two chapters ago, there are now 76 of those things on the march and while twenty of them pushed the defensive line and testing that perimeter, the rest were sent on another task. A task most foul, the task of culling the weak and innocent to bolster their own numbers. And as those brave men and woman fought on the first floor with all their might to secure the one way they thought was their weak point, the barricades on the second floor fell. Allowing a flood of claws and teeth to swarm into operations and the adjoining Med Lab, cutting off the survivors only route of escape, those who ran for it in that direction were caught by the second wave. Parents did what they could to protect their child, ultimately only buying the young one a few more moments of freedom, the elderly were defenseless against the massacre brought on by primal rage and furry, as it was now every man for themselves near the end.

Each creature, snatching up one full sized adult or multiple children before running off with them, back the way they came and toward the hive. Killing those who resisted them, or were of no use to them as a suitable host, those who were too small for one of the creatures young to gestate inside of. Laden with their burden they made a hasty retreat, down at the corridor the alpha heard the call of the retreating attack force and withdrew. Leaving those on the first floor thinking they had won and had stayed off an attack. Only to reach the second floor to find not only a hole punched into their "well made" defenses, but a empty battlefield where once the defenseless colonist had once been. Marie collapses on the floor, ashamed that she had been to sure of their defenses and in her exhausted state made a bad choice by pulling all armed men and woman to defend one point.

 **A/N- As stated before, you do not need to be alive to be used as a host, just as long as your upper body is intact they can still use you as a breeding ground.**


	19. And Grizzly Ghouls from Every Tomb

Acheron Chapter 19 – And Grizzly Ghouls from Every Tomb Are Closing in to Seal Your Doom

Marie broke down, sitting upon the floor where she had collapsed, her exhaustion and emotional state getting the better of her as she stared upon the innocent lives that were lost today. Ed, Kevin and Edd along with the other sixteen surviving colonists where in various states of disbelief and horror that this had happened right under their noses. They were supposed to protect these people, they had trusted them to protect them, but in the end they had failed them all. Each of them took their time to collect the dead the creatures had deemed unworthy, wrapping each of them up in sheets as hasty burial shrouds. With each body they collected, Edd's heart broke just a little more, they were all so young barely having seen the joys that life can bring them before it was cruelly snatched away from them. He shed a tear as he picked up the body of the infant Kipper's body had been lying beside on the ground, the small member of his family had probably given his life to try and protect that child.

The funeral was quick and done in silence, as they took the bodies of the young to the morgue to be cremated. Each saying their farewells in their own way to those they had known for only a little while during their short lives. Marie cried her last tear during the silent service, as her resolve to make these fuckers pay for these innocent deaths strengthened her. The group solemnly entered operations after the quick service, "What are our options," Marie asked the group.

No one spoke up, each seemed to be giving up hope of winning at this point, and the thought of rescue for those taken had already been proven a futile effort just on their first attempt to infiltrate the hive. Kevin took Edd's hand and intertwined their fingers, looking into those blue eyes he loved as he answered her, "How far do you want to go?"

"Total annihilation," she replied with a harsh bitter tone in her voice.

As he looked into those eyes he was asking permission, and Edd's eyes replied that it was ok, that he could do what he must, "We can throw the switches and shut down the cooling system." Edd takes a seat beside him, pulling up some information on the computer screen.

One of the colonist asks, "How long would that give us?"

"Thirty minutes once the switches are pulled, with a fifteen minute safety window to abort,"

"That won't give us enough time to reach safe distance," another person protested.

"Yeah then there's the other thing," Kevin added.

Marie cocks a brow at him, "What other thing?"

"We can't throw the switches from here," he knew what he was about to say would cause issues, "It has to be done in the plant itself."

"No fucking way," one bellow, "You got to be shitting me, we have to walk into that death trap," another whined, "Can't we just take the ATV's and run?"

"Run where?" Marie asked with a stern look on her face, "What's going to stop those things from hunting us down? Our best hope is to kill them all and this is our best option to do that," she looks at each of them before she continued, "The one thing we can all probably agree on is that we are on borrowed time now, and I am not going to waist mine begging god for one more moment of life. If I die, I'm going to make sure I take as many of those fuckers with me as I can. So, you can either sit here and wait for the fireworks to go off, or you can come with us and help make sure they do."

"There is probably a way for us to survive," Edd chimed in as he transferred the information he was looking at to the command table, "Here," he points to a location on the map he had pulled up. "There is a cliff wall we can hide behind that will shield us from the blast, the wind is blowing in the opposite direction so the fall out will be pushed that way."

"That's ten miles out," someone was trying to poke holes in his plan.

Letting out a sigh that the answer wasn't obvious to them, he explains, "We take the remaining ATV's to the plant, park near the stairs,' he turns to Kevin, "Honey how long would it take us to get back up after throwing the switches?"

"Five minutes at most," he replied.

"Jump in and get the hell out of there, make a straight line toward the cliff using this gorge, should only take us twenty minutes from the APP,"

"That's cutting it close,' Ed stated, "Leaves no room for mistakes."

"Why don't we send one person in, while everyone else heads for safety, the needs of the many you know," one person stated.

"Kevin's got the codes, lets send him in," that person found their chair abruptly kicked out from under them and Edd's foot upon their face.

"Listen here you little shit," Edd seethed, "We stand a better chance of this working if we go in as a team, besides codes can always be shared and we can always send your happy ass in instead."

"Babe," Kevin says softly and Edd looks in his direction, "I think he gets the point."

Edd backs off keeping his eyes on the man that was on the floor, "I agree with Edd," Marie states, "This is a group effort, and right now would be the perfect time to go in while their attention is elsewhere."

"You mean on the people they have just taken," the one getting up off the floor stated.

"Yeah," she replied bluntly, "it might seem cruel, but we can't save them now not with all those things around them, and if we did try we would only end up like them. The best we can do for them now is to give them a quick and painless death." She looked at each of them in turn to see if there would be anymore decent about this course of action. Leaving them to their fate didn't sit right with her either, but a rescue would have even less hope of succeeding then Kevin's plan would, and they all knew it. "So, for anyone that doesn't want to participate you are more than welcome to stay here. But one way or another that plant is going up and you can enjoy your front row seats when it does." With their choice being effectively made for them with that statement the conversation was over, grabbing the food supplies and weapons they would need they headed out of operations and down the hall. Squeezing through the hole in the barracked, they made their way toward the bridge quickly but cautiously, trying not to draw attention to themselves. Reaching the garage a short time later, they found that only three of the ATV's were still intact from the earlier explosion. Edd, Kevin and Marie went to the supply depot to retrieve the keys while the others loaded up the vehicles with their supplies.

Supplied and loaded into the trucks they kept their eyes upon the hanger door as it slowly opened, breathing out a collective sigh of relief when nothing was waiting for them on the other side. Pulling the vehicles out of the complex carefully, they fell into a convoy formation and made their way around the colony. Keeping their eyes upon the roof of the buildings. Watching for any sign of ambush from the crafty creatures, that have already proven themselves to be a formidable foe. The tension in the vehicles was palpable as the made their approach to the processing plant and down right oppressive as they made their way up the service ramp to the loading dock doors. The door raises automatically as they made their approach allowing them entry into the plant, pulling close to the stairwell they positioned the vehicles so they were facing the exit and on the far side of the massive passage from the stairs.

Proceeding one level down to sublevel 1 the quietly made their way to the control hub for the cooling system located near the heat exchangers. Though the hive was two levels below them, they did not hold out hope that there would be no sign of the creatures upon this level. Keeping their eyes on corners and checking each junction before the continued further in, doing their best to leave nothing to chance. Each step they made upon the metal grated floor sounded as though it echoed off the walls and down the halls to alert whatever might be nearby of their presents. Their ragged shallow breathes were audible to each other, each of their hearts racing inside their chests as they slowly made progress toward their destination. Each flickering light or sudden sound from the plants natural function startling some of them as their fear induced minds were beginning to play tricks upon them, making them believe they saw a shadow move or heard footsteps approaching.

A short journey that felt like hours under their fear and sleep deprived delusional minds was finally at an end as they reached the control center they were making for. Kevin lunges forward as they entered the space, softly breathing out, "What the fuck," examining the console before him. Along the walls encasing the first set of switches was the same secreted resin that they had discovered in the hive itself, effectively jamming the device from its intended purpose.

Kevin examined the device and the second set of safety switches which were also encased, trying to determine the best course of action. Melting the substance with a flamethrower might damage the switches and negate why they had come here in the first place, prying the stuff off might take too much time and cause too much noise. "Kevin," Edd whispered.

"Not now Edd, let me think," he replied concentrating on his goal.

But all the others had seen what Edd was looking at, off to the side out of view from the main entry way were several oval like objects sitting upon the floor that Marie recognized all too well. The tops of which were now starting to move and open, "Kevin, we have to go." But it was too late, Kevin turned his head to look in the direction of his husband, just in time to see one of the parasites leaping toward Edd and no time to react himself. Edd barely had enough time to lift his arms to block the creature from attaching itself to his face, the tail whipping toward him, wrapping itself around his neck, strangling him.

"Fry those fuckers," Marie yelled a little too loudly as she dropped down with Kevin to assist Edd with the parasite. The frightened civilian hesitates for just a moment, but that moment was all it took for the second parasite to leap upon him, incapacitating him instantly with its toxin. Ed did not hesitate and shot a blast of flame at the remaining eggs killing the parasites still contained within.

Kevin and Marie fought with the creature, trying to remove its tail from around a gasping Edd's neck, for such a small thing it was surprisingly strong in all the places it needed to be. Edd began to panic as he continued to fight to bring air into his lungs, his legs kicking wildly his hands now free of restraining the creature were fighting to remove the tail from his throat, only getting in the way of Kevin's efforts. Getting a good grip Kevin unwraps the tail from Edd, allowing the man to breath and couch in air, Marie goes to throw the thing into the flames. Losing her grip upon the squirming creature mid swing, it frees itself and pounces, at close range it is hard for the thing to miss, Marie goes down, succumbing to the toxin quickly.

"We have to go," Edd yelled through a cough as he heard the approaching clanging of claw upon metal, and the threating hiss of their approaching doom.

"But the self-destruct," the frightened man pleaded, gesturing toward the useless control panels.

"There's no time," Kevin replied as he had also heard their impending demise coming down the adjacent hall. The group quickly made their way out of the room with Ed and Kevin in the lead, followed by his husband and the others. A creature bounds in to the room, landing on the console they were just at as the last person exited, jumping forward and tackling them to the ground, incapacitating them quickly. Making off with it's prey as more of those foul beast chased down the remainder of the colony, each one of the fleeing prey cursing their fates and the cruelty of the universe. The two pulling up the rear sending jets of flame down the hall behind them, keeping the approaching creatures at bay. That is until the one on the right was snatched up into an air shaft above him and the one on the left was tackled to the ground as she was distracted by her partners fate for just a moment.

It is times like these that prey do what comes natural, herd together and run, the caribou hoping to god that the wolf will tire of the chase or be sated with a straggler, thus ensuring the survival of the group. The needs of the many outweighing the needs of the one as they say, not that this makes any of them bad people, but what would you do in their shoes? Would you stop and help someone up that had fallen while teeth and claws were mere feet away from you, or would you be that person in the zombie flick that would zombie bate the weaker link so you could survive? It's easy to say what you would hope you would do, as you sit there comfortably on your couch or in the comfort of your bed reading this. But if the reality of the situation was before you would you truly help them, or would you panic hearing the clanging of claws upon steal and the roar of the beast only feet from you, and run for your life?

And that is what they all did, they ran for their lives, being picked off one at a time as their legs could no longer propel them fast enough to our run the terror that followed them, until only three remained. "Get in, get in, get in," Ed bellowed as he ran for the driver's side, Kevin and Edd rushing toward the passenger door.

Forgoing the safety harnesses, Ed stomped his foot upon the pedal sending the vehicle barreling forward, Kevin hitting the control to open the door, the ATV barely making clearance. The sound of banging upon the outer hull of the ATV let them all know they were not alone, Ed swerved to try and shake them off. "Hadley's Hope, this is the shuttle Argo on final approach do you read me?" A voice came over the communicator in the vehicle.

Kevin reaches up and flips the switch as he held on for dear life, "Yes Argo we read you, we are in a state of emergency and need immediate evac, over."

Edd straps himself in as the voice responded, "What's your emergency son?"

"We've suffered heavy casualties and request your assistance," Edd reaches over and straps Kevin in as the voice on the other side responded.

"Is it contagious? How many survivors?"

"No, it's an alien life form that's very aggressive, only three survivors, please help us."

Edd reaches over to get Ed's belt, but a sharp turn of the controls knocks him in the other direction. Ed tries to compensate, losing control of the vehicle, it skids then tumbles, colliding with the rock face head on, sending the unrestrained man through the windshield to his death along with the creatures that were clinging to the hull of the ATV. The man on the other end could hear the collision but spoke anyways, Edd and Kevin as they recovered could hear his warbling voice through the damaged speakers, "We're almost to the landing pad, met us there, we will wait only a little bit for you."

Exiting the vehicle, they ran for their very lives the rest of the way, panting for air, willing their muscles to exert just a little more effort in keeping them alive. Approaching the pad, Kevin could see the man giving up hope that they were coming and was beginning to board his ship once again, he screams as best as his tired lungs would allow him, "We're over here." Waving one arm in the air as he pulled Edd along toward their salvation, the man had luckily turned for one last look, for he did not hear Kevin's cry, but did see him running toward him waving his arm in the air, dragging an exhausted Edd with him.

Tired and ready to fall down to their deaths, they trudged on, boarding the ship moments later, no sign of pursuit upon them. "Just you two," the man asked as he closed the ramp, Kevin nods as he placed Edd down to rest, strapping him into the chair. "Ang didn't make it then?" Kevin shakes his head no as he took the seat beside him, feeling the pitch of the vehicle as it made its way up toward space. The passage they bartered with the smugglers came at a steep price, for they did not want the company to know of their transit back to earth. The only sign that they were even back came as their bank account were emptied to pay the captain of the ship her price and to start their new life. Taking up residence in the small country town of Peach Creek, only going, the inhabitants of that town only knowing them by their middle names, taking up the simple life of tailors to earn a living.

Neither man forgetting what they had gone through, as their dreams were plagued with the memories of all those who had lost their lives, and the things they had to do to survive. For Kevin, it was throwing off Thomas' hand that had reached out for him as he fell, threatening to throw him off balance and take him down with him. For Edd, it was Rebecca who reached out for him as she was snatched up, maybe he could have saved her if he had not been so selfish as to keep running. But one never knows what would have happened to them if they had been more compassionate in those final frightful moments, would they still be alive and safe on earth. Or would they have been cocooned upon those wall fated to play host for one of those things, their final moments of life nothing but pain, loneliness, fear and suffering.

 **The End.**


End file.
